People v. Pitman

• Decision Date: 17 June 2004
• Docket Number: No. 95783.,95783.
• Citation: 813 N.E.2d 93,211 Ill.2d 502,286 Ill.Dec. 36
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Shane PITMAN, Appellant.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

813 N.E.2d 93

211 Ill.2d 502

286 Ill.Dec. 36

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Appellee, v. Shane PITMAN, Appellant.

No. 95783.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

June 17, 2004.

Daniel D. Yuhas, Deputy Defender, Judith L. Libby, Assistant Defender, Office of the State Appellate Defender, Springfield, for appellant.

Lisa Madigan, Attorney General, Springfield, Vince Moreth, State's Attorney, Carlinville (Gary Feinerman, Solicitor General, Linda D. Woloshin, David H. Iskowich, Assistant Attorneys General, Chicago, of counsel), for the People.

Justice FREEMAN delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant, Shane Pitman, was indicted in the circuit court of Macoupin County on one count of unlawful manufacture of cannabis, in that he knowingly manufactured more than 500 grams but not more than 2,000 grams of a substance containing cannabis. 720 ILCS 550/5(e) (West 1998). Defendant filed a motion to suppress evidence and quash arrest. Defendant moved to suppress, inter alia, marijuana plants seized following a search of a farm occupied by defendant. At the close of a hearing, the circuit court granted defendant's motion to suppress. The State brought an interlocutory appeal to the appellate court pursuant to our Rule 604(a)(1) (188 Ill.2d R. 604(a)(1)). The appellate court, with one justice dissenting, reversed the circuit court's suppression order and remanded the cause to the circuit court for further proceedings. No. 4-01-0620 (unpublished order under Supreme Court Rule 23).

We allowed defendant's petition for leave to appeal (177 Ill.2d R. 315(a)). We now reverse the judgment of the appellate court, affirm the suppression order of the circuit court, and remand the cause to the circuit court for further proceedings.

BACKGROUND

The following witnesses testified at the suppression hearing: Alan Bondy, Sherry White, Dale Reels, Ron Lewis, Amy Curtis, and Mary Pitman. The hearing adduced the following pertinent evidence.

Mary Pitman owned a 93-acre farm in Macoupin County, east of the Village of Shipman. Pitman is defendant's mother and Sherry White's aunt; White is defendant's cousin. The farm contained two residences, a farmhouse and a trailer. In July 1999, White lived in the farmhouse; defendant, his girlfriend Amy Curtis, and their two children lived in the trailer.

On Friday, July 16, or Saturday, July 17, 1999, White drove behind a person she believed to be a police officer. She followed him to his home. Unbeknownst to White, the officer was Alan Bondy, the chief of police for the Village of Shipman. White knocked on his front door and they spoke on his porch. According to White:

"I knocked on the door and told him I had a question to ask him, because I was living at a farm and keeping the upkeep, and someone else that was living on the same farm, but down the road, was growing marijuana, and I was wanting to know if I would get into any trouble, or if the person that owned the land would get their farm taken away, and if there was a couple that lived there, and if they would get their kids taken away."

According to White, Bondy responded:

"He said, `It wouldn't be the Pitman farm out there, would it?' I didn't say nothing, and I could tell he could tell by the look on my face. But * * * I said, `Well, if you know if it's the Pitman farm, why don't you go out there and bust him?' He said he knew Shane Pitman had been growing marijuana for a while, and they was after the bigger guys, that they weren't going to bother him."

At the end of their conversation, according to White: "he told me that I wouldn't get in no trouble, I more or less just took it that that would be it. * * * I turned around and left and went home * * * [b]ack to the farm." Their entire conversation lasted under a minute.

White testified that she did not describe the location of the plants. She did not give Bondy permission to come onto the premises to search. She did not ask Bondy to have defendant arrested and the plants removed. Between that day and July 20, White was never contacted by anyone from the Illinois State Police. No law enforcement officer ever asked her anything about the plants. She never gave anyone permission to come onto the premises.

Alan Bondy testified as follows. White knocked on his front door and he answered. According to Bondy: "She introduced herself as Sherry White, said she was renting a farm from her Aunt Mary out east of town." Further: "She was concerned over cannabis being grown on the property and was curious whether she would get in trouble or the owner of the property, being her Aunt Mary, would be subject to lose the property because of the cannabis being grown." Bondy asked White if defendant was growing the marijuana, and White responded "yes." White asked Bondy that if he knew that defendant was growing the marijuana, why did Bondy not go out to the farm and arrest defendant? Bondy told White that the farm was located outside of his jurisdiction.

Further, according to Bondy, White gave him details as to where the marijuana was growing on the premises:

"She said that she had found 13 Dixie cups with starter plants in them, she had found a patch of plants growing behind the barn, behind the house that she lived in. The barn was behind the house that she stayed in, and it was growing behind the barn, and there was another patch across the creek that was growing, on the other side of a hill or somewhere."

White informed Bondy that "Shane was cultivating, he was taking care of the plants, and that's what made her nervous." However, White was somewhat relieved when Bondy offered his opinion that the farm was not in jeopardy because White came forward with this information, and because Mary Pitman had no knowledge of defendant's activity.

Bondy told White that he would have to relay the information to the proper authorities. He told White that "the Drug Task Force would be out there and do an investigation, and they would contact her." The entire conversation lasted "[n]ot more than 5 to 10 minutes."

According to Bondy, the extent of his involvement was that he took a statement from White and relayed that information to the Illinois State Police: "I was given information. I relayed the information on. I jotted the information down on a piece of notebook paper, so that when the information was relayed on I got it correct, and that was inadvertently thrown away." Bondy telephoned the Task Force and left a message. The following week, Dale Reels returned Bondy's call, and Bondy gave Reels the information. Bondy told Reels that White "had came by the house, she had expressed concern over the plants that were being grown on the property and where they were being grown." Bondy told Reels that White "wanted them [the marijuana plants] removed, and she wanted Shane arrested."

Dale Reels was a patrolman with the Carlinville police department, assigned to the South Central Illinois Drug Task Force, which was a unit of the Illinois State Police. At approximately 1 p.m. on Monday, July, 19, 1999, Officer Reels telephoned Bondy. According to Reels, Bondy told him: "She [White] went to him [Bondy] because she was concerned for the welfare of the farm and concerned for her own welfare, because her cousin, Shane Pitman, was growing cannabis on the farm." Reels had known defendant for a few months because defendant had been a confidential informant for the Drug Task Force. The next day, Tuesday, July 20, 1999, Officer Reels drove to the Pitman farm. During his testimony, Reels was asked whether there was "ample time for you to go obtain a search warrant for the premises on the basis that there is cannabis growing there," to which he answered, "There would have been time, yes."

Officer Reels arrived at the Pitman farm at approximately 2:25 p.m. With him was Macoupin County deputy sheriff Ron Lewis, also assigned to the Drug Task Force. Neither Reels nor Lewis had spoken with White prior to that time. They went to the premises to interview White.

The 93-acre farm was located along a road that ran north and south. The farm was on the west side of the road; the farmhouse faced the road to the east. A driveway off of the road was located on the north side of the house. On one side of the driveway was a sign that read "Private Property" and on the other side a sign that read "No Trespassing." Defendant's trailer was located "at least a football field's length" north of the house. The trailer had its own driveway off of the road. Reels and Lewis had previously been to defendant's trailer when defendant had been an informant.

The testimony conflicts at this point. According to Reels and Lewis, they both exited the automobile. They went to the front door of the house, knocked, and called, "Anybody home?" Hearing no answer, they went to the back door and knocked. Upon hearing no answer, they walked toward the barn located behind the house.

However, Amy Curtis, defendant's girlfriend, testified that on the afternoon of July 20, 1999, she was driving past the farm when she saw an automobile parked in the driveway. From previous encounters, she recognized the automobile as an unmarked police car. She pulled into the driveway behind the police car and exited her car. She saw one man on the front porch at the door and another sitting in the police car. According to Curtis: "I asked him [the man at the door] `Can I help you?' And he said `I am looking for Sherry White.'" Curtis responded that White was at work, but would return home between 3 and 3:30 p.m. Curtis then returned to her car, backed out of the driveway, and drove up the road to her trailer. She saw the police car back out of the driveway and drive away from the house.

Reels and Lewis were each asked whether a woman drove to the house and asked them why they were there. Each responded that he could not remember. Also, neither Reels nor Lewis could remember seeing the "Private Property" and "No Trespassing" signs posted on the driveway.

According to Reels...