Opinion ID: 2162895
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the home invasion conviction

Text: Holman argues that his convictions of home invasion and felony murder based on burglary cannot stand because the evidence fails to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that his entry into the Townsend home was unauthorized. (See People v. Medreno (1981), 99 Ill. App.3d 449, 455.) He contends that the consensual nature of his entry is established by the absence of any physical evidence of force near any of the doors at the time the police arrived, Mrs. Townsend's testimony that the door to Anthony's room was open when she and Holman left the house through it, and the stipulated testimony of a Gary police officer that shortly after she was brought to the hospital Mrs. Townsend told him that Anthony had let Holman into the house to use the telephone. This argument is without merit. The absence of physical signs of forced entry does not necessarily indicate that an entry was consented to. The evidence in this case is not inconsistent with Mrs. Townsend's version of events based on what she stated Holman told her, which was that he shot Anthony and that he had forced his way into the house after Anthony had opened his door part way and decided not to allow him to enter. In addition, Mrs. Townsend denied telling anyone, as Holman contended she had, that Anthony had let Holman in to use the telephone and stated that, inasmuch as Holman had not himself told her this, she did not know how she could have known it. The jury could reasonably have believed her testimony at trial and found beyond a reasonable doubt that Holman entered the house without authority. The conviction of home invasion is affirmed. Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 38, par. 12-11(a)(1).