People v. Reed

• Citation: 164 N.E. 847,333 Ill. 397
• Decision Date: 07 February 1929
• Docket Number: No. 19063.,19063.
• Parties: PEOPLE v. REED.
• Court: Supreme Court of Illinois

333 Ill. 397

164 N.E. 847

PEOPLE

v.REED.

No. 19063.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Dec. 20, 1928.

Rehearing Denied Feb. 7, 1929.

Error to Circuit Court, La Salle County; Frank H. Hayes, Judge.

Hiram Reed was convicted of violating the act against destroying property or inflicting injury to persons by means of bomb, dynamite, or other explosives, or by means of any similar instrument or implement, and he brings error.

Affirmed.George W. Sprenger, of Chicago, and Richolson, Armstrong & O'Meara, of Ottawa, for plaintiff in error.

Oscar E. Carlstrom, Atty. Gen., and Russell O. Hanson, State's Atty., of Ottawa, and Royce A. Kidder, of Springfield, for the People.

DUNN, J.

Hiram Reed was convicted in the circuit court of La Salle county of a violation of the act ‘to punish persons for destroying property, or inflicting injury to persons, by means of any bomb, dynamite or other explosive, or by means of any similar instrument or implement’ (Laws of 1921, p. 401), and he prosecutes this writ of error to review the judgment.

The errors assigned and argued question the sufficiency of the evidence to prove the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, the admission of incompetent evidence, the giving and refusal of instructions, the rulings of the court in regard to the conduct of the state's attorney during the trial, and the conduct of spectators present at the trial.

The indictment charged the defendant with maliciously damaging, injuring, and defacing a schoolhouse, and the evidence shows that on the morning of December 1, 1927, an explosion occurred in the schoolhouse which shattered the stove and the windows, defaced the seats, desks, and other furniture, spread soot and dust throughout the building, drove bits of iron into the walls and ceiling, broke the plastering, and injured the teacher, Iola Bradford. She had arrived at the schoolhouse a few minutes earlier and has started to build a fire in the stove with paper from the waste-paper basket and corncobs. She lighted the paper and was standing in front of the stove, and about two feet from it, when the explosion occurred. She testified that she had closed the stove door and stepped back to wait for the cobs to burn, and that was the last she remembered until she opened her eyes and found herself on the floor of the schoolroom and saw blood on her hands. She saw smoke or soot in the room and made an effort to get out. She finally succeeded in pulling herself up by the aid of the desk in front of the stove and went down the aisle and out on the porch. She leaned against the post and told the children who were in the schoolhouse yard, outside the schoolhouse, to go and tell her sister, at whose house, 40 rods away, she was living. The children went, in obedience to her direction, toward her sister's home, and she went through the schoolyard toward the gate, where she met a man who helped her walk until they were met by Howard Clegg, her sister's husband, who took her to the house, where she was put to bed and Dr. Peterson, of Rutland, came. He found that she had numerous cuts, lacerations around the face, chest, on the abdomen, legs, and hand, some cuts large enough to require suturing. He took at least a dozen small pieces of metal from the wounds, the largest probably an inch long and a quarter of an inch wide. Clegg, in the garage at his house, heard the explosion, and two or three munutes later saw 10 or 15 children running and screaming, and, after talking with the first of them, went with Theodore Paris, who was working for him, toward the schoolhouse. They saw Lola Bradford leave the schoolyard, leaning over, staggering and walking toward them, and brought her home. He noticed the odor of exploded dynamite on her clothing. After calling Dr. Peterson, he and Paris went to the schoolhouse and he noticed the smell of exploded dynamite there. Most of the windows were out, the stove was wrecked, pieces of the stove were sticking in the walls and doors and on the piano, the seats were scarred, the floor covered with spatterings of soot and plaster and glass. Many other witnesses visited the schoolhouse on the day of the explosion and the next day, who testified to the condition of the building and its contents and the character and extent of the injury done, and some of them testified to observing the smell of exploded dynamite in the building soon after the explosion. This testimony tended to show that there was a violent explosion of dynamite in the schoolhouse stove, that the schoolhouse was designed for human occupancy, was used and occupied by human beings, and was damaged.

[1] Witnesses who testified that they observed the smell of dynamite also testified that they had used dynamite or that they were familiar with its odor and fumes and able to tell it when they smelled it. This testimony is criticized, for the reason that the witnesses were unable to tell what kind of an odor dynamite has because they did not know how to describe it. Most persons would probably find it difficult to describe the odor of a rose, whisky, beer, or limburger cheese, but this difficulty could scarcely be regarded as affecting the value of their testimony that they were familiar with and recognized the particular odor.

The defendant was about 25 years old and lived with his parents on his father's farm in Peoria county, about 7 or 8 miles from Chillicothe and about 36 miles from the schoolhouse, which is about 4 miles north of the village of Dana, in La Salle county. On the day of the explosion the sheriff of La Salle county sent a deputy to bring him to the county jail. The deputy arrived at the defendant's house, near Mossville, in Peoria county, about 5:20 in the evening. He had no warrant for the defendant. The defendant ate his supper and left with the deputy in about a half hour in an automobile for Ottawa. The deputy, Orr, testified that on the way the defendant asked him several times what happened and if there was an explosion and anybody got burned. Orr told him that there was an explosion at the schoolhouse and the Bradford girl was in bad shape. He arrived at the county jail between 8:30 and 9 o'clock. Orr had had no supper, and he fried some eggs in the jail and the defendant ate one. Orr asked him if he wanted another, and he said no; that he had all he wanted. The defendant remained in the jail office until about 10 o'clock and was then taken into one of the front rooms in the jail, which was called the ‘trusty’ room.

Chester E. Jacobson, who was assistant state's attorney, saw the defendant about 9 o'clock while he was sitting in the jail office and afterward had a conversation with him in the trusty room about 10:30, in which the defendant told him he was engaged to marry Iola Bradford. Jacobson testified that he accused Reed of burning the schoolhouse; that Reed hesitated for a time, looked at Jacobson and said nothing, but finally said he did not do it. The state's attorney arrived later, and from that time until about 4 o'clock in the morning he questioned the defendant in regard to the explosion at the schoolhouse, and about 4 o'clock a statement in writing was written by the state's attorney and signed by the defendant. This statement was introduced on the trial and is as follows:

‘My name is Hiram Reed. I am twenty-four years old. I live near Chillicothe, Illinois. I have known Iola Bradford five years. I have been engaged to marry her for the last three months. On Wednesday, November 30, 1927, I called upon Iola Bradford at the home of her brother-in-law, Howard Clegg, north of Dana, Illinois. I left my home around six o'clock P. M. in my Ford coupé. I arrived at the home of Iola Bradford about 9:00 P. M. I went in the house. Mrs. Clegg was up. The others were in bed. Iola got up and dressed and came out to talk with me. I stayed with her until about 12:30 A. M. Thursday, December 1, 1927. I told her I had sent her a ring from Peoria and asked if it had come yet. This was not true, as I had not sent her a ring. I had previously told her I would marry her on Sunday, December 4, 1927. When I came to see Iola Bradford on Wednesday, November 30, 1927. I had with me in my car a stick and a half of dynamite. I intended to place it in the stove of the school house where Iola Bradford teaches. This school is about half a block away from the place where she stays. When I left Iola on Thursday A. M., December 1, 1927, I went to the school house near her home and broke in the front door with a screw driver. I had the dynamite wrapped up in a paper. I had a fuse about ten inches long and dynamite cap attached to the dynamite. I tied the dynamite to the top of the stove on the inside with a piece of string. I intended that the dynamite should explode when the stove was started by Iola Bradford when she opened school Thursday morning. After placing the dynamite in the stove I went home, arriving there about 2:30 A. M. Thursday. I bought the dynamite at Dooley Bros. mining supply store in Peoria about two months ago. My folks did not know I purchased the dynamite. I kept it in the garage. I knew that Iola Bradford was in a family way and that I was responsible for her condition. She was in that condition for about three months. I planned on putting the dynamite in the stove a couple days ago. I went to the home of Iola Bradford on Wednesday last for the purpose of putting dynamite in the stove of her school room. I knew she was the one who started the fire in that stove each morning. I bought two sticks of dynamite at Dooley's and took two sticks with me but threw half a stick of it in the Illinois river near Lacon, as I was going to the home of Iola Bradford on Wednesday, November 30, 1927.

‘The only promise made to me by the State's attorney is that if Iola Bradford married me before the next grand jury meets this statement will not be used against me in any charge against her. If she does not marry me, then this statement may be used against me.

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