People v. Williams

• Decision Date: 07 September 1995
• Docket Number: No. 1-93-0164,1-93-0164
• Citation: 655 N.E.2d 1071,211 Ill.Dec. 688,275 Ill.App.3d 249
• Parties: , 211 Ill.Dec. 688 The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Paul WILLIAMS, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 1071

655 N.E.2d 1071

275 Ill.App.3d 249, 211 Ill.Dec. 688

The PEOPLE of the State of Illinois, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Paul WILLIAMS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 1-93-0164.

Appellate Court of Illinois First District, Fourth Division.

Sept. 7, 1995.

James K. Leven, Northfield, for appellant.

Jack O'Malley, State's Atty. of Cook County, Chicago (Renee Goldfarb, William D. Carroll, and William L. Toffenetti, Asst. State's Attys., of counsel), for appellee.

Justice CAHILL delivered the opinion of the court:

A jury found Paul Williams guilty of armed robbery and the murder of Mark Davies. The trial court sentenced defendant to 39 years in prison. He appeals and argues that numerous errors denied him a fair trial. We affirm.

Mark Davies was beaten, robbed, and left to die in the Jackson Park lagoon on June 27, 1987. The next day Samuel Lane was also beaten and robbed near the lagoon. Twelve days later the police questioned Edward Booth about the Lane incident. Booth arrived at the station on July 9, 1987, and began to describe not the Lane, but the Davies incident. Booth admitted that he, the defendant, and David Williams attacked and beat Davies on June 27, 1987. The police then arrested the defendant and brought him to the station where he made a statement.

Detective Kutz testified at a hearing to quash the defendant's arrest and suppress his statement. Kutz said he was assigned to investigate the robbery of Samuel Lane and the robbery and death of Mark Davies. He questioned Edward Booth at the police station about the Lane robbery on July 9, 1987. Kutz said he soon realized that Booth was giving details of a different crime. Kutz then showed Booth a photograph of Mark Davies. Booth identified Davies as the victim he, along with the defendant and David Williams, attacked on June 27, 1987.

Booth told the detective that he, with the defendant and David Williams, went to the Jackson Park bridge with baseball bats to commit robberies on June 27, 1987. When Davies walked onto the bridge they beat him with their fists and baseball bats. They took his money and dragged him under the bridge. All three tried to leave in Davies' car, but could not drive a car with a manual transmission. Booth was 14 years old.

Kutz testified that when he finished talking with Booth he and other officers went to 1515 East 65th Street. The police did not have arrest warrants. David Williams had told the police he lived at 1515 East 65th Street when he was at the station on June 28, 1987, being questioned for an unrelated crime. Kutz went to the second floor at 1515 East 65th Street and knocked on the front door. The person who answered told Kutz that Paul and David Williams were outside on the back porch. He let Kutz walk through the apartment to the back porch. When Kutz got to the porch Detective O'Connell and Officer Hules had arrested Paul and David Williams.

Detective O'Connell testified that he and Officers Hules and Sanders went to the back of the building at 1515 East 65th Street at 9:20 p.m. on July 9, 1987. They were not in uniform. From the ground, they could see five males standing and talking on the open second floor porch. The officers walked in through an open gate and up to the second floor porch. They asked the men their names. When defendant and David Williams identified themselves, the officers arrested them and read them their rights.

They then drove defendant and David Williams to the station and put them in separate rooms. Detectives Kutz and Romic interviewed defendant at 9:45 p.m. Kutz read defendant Miranda warnings and told him he could be tried as an adult because he was 16 years old. Defendant at first denied knowledge of the murder. When the detectives confronted him with information they had learned about the crime, he stated he wanted to tell them the truth. He admitted during this interview, which lasted half an hour, that he participated in the attack and murder of Davies. Defendant identified a photograph of Davies as the man he attacked. He signed the back of the photograph and wrote the time as 10:30 p.m. Defendant spoke with an assistant State's Attorney who again advised him of his rights at 12:50 a.m. on July 10, 1987. Two youth officers arrived at 3:30 a.m. Defendant made a court reported statement at 4:00 a.m.

Defendant stated that he, David Williams, and Edward Booth went to the Jackson Park bridge with baseball bats to rob "anyone with money." When Davies walked onto the bridge, they beat him with their fists. Defendant stated that David Williams and Booth also hit Davies with the baseball bats. They checked Davies' pockets for money and found car keys. They carried Davies under the bridge. They found Davies' car, but found nothing of value in it. Defendant concluded his statement by saying he had been treated well, given food and drink, allowed to go to the bathroom, and that no one threatened him or made promises to him. Defendant corrected the statement, initialed the corrections, and signed the statement.

Defendant and David Williams testified that they were arrested in the kitchen of the apartment at 1515 East 65th Street. Defendant also testified that he had been living at 1515 East 65th Street for three or four months before his arrest on July 9, 1987. He then admitted that he told the police on June 28, 1987, and July 9, 1987, that his address was 7637 South Ridgeland.

Gladys Garrett, the defendant's mother, testified that she lived at 7637 South Ridgeland. She learned on the night of July 9, 1987, that two of her sons, Paul and David Williams, had been arrested. She made telephone calls to police stations to locate them. She called the station at 51st and Wentworth at 5 a.m., and was told that defendant was in custody there. She and her husband then drove to 51st and Wentworth and asked to see Paul and David. Garrett stated that she was denied permission to see her sons.

The trial court denied defendant's motion to quash arrest and suppress statements.

At trial, the testimony of witnesses for the prosecution was similar to their testimony at the hearing on the motion to quash and suppress. Defendant's statement was published to the jury. Defendant called no witnesses. The jury found defendant guilty of armed robbery (Ill.Rev.Stat.1987, ch. 38, par. 18-2(a)) and murder (Ill.Rev.Stat.1987, ch. 38, par. 9-1(a)). The court sentenced him to 39 years in prison.

Defendant first argues on appeal that the police lacked probable cause to arrest him because Edward Booth's statement was unreliable and uncorroborated.

A person may be arrested without a warrant when a police officer has reasonable grounds to believe that the person has committed a crime. (725 ILCS 5/107-2(1)(c) (West 1992).) Probable cause to arrest exists when the totality of the facts and circumstances known to the officer at the time of the arrest are such that a reasonable person would believe the defendant committed the offense. (People v. Tisler (1984), 103 Ill.2d 226, 82 Ill.Dec. 613, 469 N.E.2d 147.) The statement of a codefendant may give rise to probable cause if it bears sufficient indicia of reliability. (People v. James (1987), 118 Ill.2d 214, 113 Ill.Dec. 86, 514 N.E.2d 998.) Statements against penal interest possess inherent indicia of reliability. James, 118 Ill.2d at 223, 113 Ill.Dec. 86, 514 N.E.2d 998.

Defendant argues that the State failed to show that Edward Booth's statement was reliable because there was no evidence to corroborate Booth's story. We disagree.

Detective Kutz testified that Booth came to the station to be interviewed about an unrelated crime. Kutz soon realized that Booth was describing the details of a different crime. Kutz then showed Booth a photograph of Davies. Booth identified Davies as the victim of the crime he committed. There is further corroboration in Booth's description of the crime. He stated that he, defendant, and David Williams beat Davies with their fists and baseball bats. The morgue photograph showed that Davies had been beaten, and the wounds were consistent with those which could have been caused by a baseball bat. Booth stated they dragged Davies under the bridge next to the lagoon after they robbed and beat him. Davies was found in the lagoon. Booth stated they could not take Davies' car because none of them knew how to operate a stick shift. Davies' car had a manual transmission.

We will not disturb the trial court's finding of probable cause on review unless it is manifestly erroneous. (People v. Bajt (1983), 113 Ill.App.3d 459, 69 Ill.Dec. 215, 447 N.E.2d 432.) Here, Booth's statement could have been considered reliable by the trial court because he admitted he was involved in the crime, "something which common sense indicates one does not do lightly or falsely." (James, 118 Ill.2d at 224, 113 Ill.Dec. 86, 514 N.E.2d 998.) Booth did not minimize his involvement. There is no evidence that Booth expected or was promised leniency in exchange for implicating the defendant.

Defendant argues that his warrantless arrest violated the Fourth Amendment because he was arrested on the porch, within the curtilage of David Williams' apartment. Curtilage extends to the area immediately adjacent to the home and is considered to be part of the home for Fourth Amendment purposes. (Oliver v. United States (1984), 466 U.S. 170, 180, 104 S.Ct. 1735, 1742, 80 L.Ed.2d 214.) The Supreme Court has held that the arrest warrant requirement begins at the threshold of the home and a doorway to a house is considered a "public place" in which there is no expectation of privacy. United States v. Santana (1976), 427 U.S. 38, 96 S.Ct. 2406, 49 L.Ed.2d 300.

In United States v. Dunn (1987), 480 U.S. 294, 107 S.Ct. 1134, 94 L.Ed.2d 326, the Supreme Court held that curtilage questions "should be resolved with particular reference to four factors: the proximity of the area claimed to be curtilage to the home, whether the area is included within an enclosure surrounding ...