Court Opinion

ID: 9859726
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 22:31:27.969705+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:04:18.145635
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE JIGANTI, dissenting: I respectfully dissent from the reversal of the armed-robbery conviction. To be convicted of armed robbery, the statute provides that while a defendant is armed with a dangerous weapon, he “takes property from the person or presence of another by the use of force or by threatening the imminent use of force.” (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1983, ch. 38, par. 18 — 1(a).) The defendant argues that there is no evidence that force was exerted against the complainant for the specific purpose of taking her property. In support of the contention the defendant relies on the case of People v. Tiller (1982), 94 Ill. 2d 303, 447 N.E.2d 174. In Tiller the victim was murdered in a store and the defendant was convicted of the murder and of armed robbery in the taking of a mail-truck Jeep that was parked nearby and which contained mail. The court reversed the armed-robbery conviction on the basis that “there is no evidence to show that the force exerted against [the victim] was for the purpose of depriving [the victim] of the mail truck or the mail in it.” (Emphasis added.) 94 Ill. 2d 303, 316, 447 N.E.2d 174. In the case at bar, the majority states that they have carefully scrutinized the evidence and have found that there is no evidence to show that the defendant took the victim’s necklace from her person or her immediate area of control, either before, during, or after the sexual assault. I do not believe that the taking of the necklace is the issue raised by the defendant. As the defendant states in his brief, his contention is that the force that was exerted against the victim was for the purpose of rape and not for the purpose of taking the victim’s property. The defendant explains that the evidence dictates the conclusion that the necklace was taken as an afterthought, subsequent to the rape and without the complainant being in any way aware of it. Consequently, the defendant argues, the force was not for the purpose of depriving the victim of her property and, therefore, he cannot be convicted under the statute for armed robbery. The Tiller case upon which the defendant relies, however, is distinguishable from the case at bar. In Tiller the evidence was insufficient to draw the conclusion that the force was for the purpose of taking the Jeep. When the force was used to murder the victim, there was no evidence from which it could have been inferred that the force used was also intended by the defendant to be used in the taking of the Jeep. There is no suggestion in the Tiller opinion that the defendant even knew that there was a Jeep. In this case the evidence is abundant for the jury to infer that during the rape the necklace was taken. Unlike Tiller, the force used here accomplished a dual purpose, rape and robbery. To gain some perspective, if the facts were varied slightly and it appeared that the defendant intended to rob the victim and as he accomplished the robbery by taking the necklace he, as an afterthought, raped the victim, it could not seriously be contended that there was no evidence of force necessary to convict the defendant of rape. I would affirm the armed-robbery conviction.