Court Opinion

ID: 9529619
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:52:40.916999+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:51.685587
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE UNDERWOOD, dissenting: Even assuming that evidence of the arson was erroneously admitted, defendant’s guilt was so clearly established by competent evidence that the error does not, in my judgment, require reversal. The majority concludes otherwise for reasons which I find singularly unpersuasive. More important, however, is the persuasiveness of the evidence of guilt. Ina Lewis testified defendant asked her the night of the murder to burn his bloody Levi pants and shirt and a wallet belonging to her murdered grandfather and that she did so. Police examination of the debris from that fire the next day revealed the remains of a wallet containing the grandfather’s current driver’s license and other of his identification cards, together with teeth from a zipper and three buttons with Levi-Strauss & Company stamped on them. Despite testimony that defendant had said he spent the night in question fishing, his clothing appeared unwrinkled, clean and fresh the next morning. Ina Lewis testified that defendant had cuts on his body which he explained to her by stating that decedent had “put up a fight.” Those cuts were also observed during defendant’s post-arrest physical examination and seemed fresh. Witness Lewis also testified that defendant told her he “walked into” her grandfather’s house, and trial testimony established that stolen keys to the front door of that house were found in. a bedroom occupied by Lewis and defendant. A flashlight from defendant’s car and money in his wallet were found to have human blood on them; a jacket defendant was wearing and the starter gun were found to have on them a type of blood similar to the victim’s. Hair with microscopic characteristics similar to decedent’s was found on defendant’s jacket, and hair with microscopic characteristics similar to defendant’s was found on decedent’s trousers. Ina Lewis testified defendant told her he had taken more than $300 from decedent. After his arrest on April 18 his billfold was found to contain $399, although he was unemployed and drawing unemployment compensation of $63, the latest check having arrived March 8. The only possible explanation of a legitimate source of the $399 was rather implausible testimony by defendant’s mother and stepfather as to gifts by her to defendant. It is not here contended, nor could it be, that the prosecution testimony and evidence, if believed, was insufficient to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Few rules of law are more firmly established than that which precludes a reviewing court from substituting its judgment as to the credibility of witnesses for that of the jury unless the evidence is so improbable as to raise a reasonable doubt of guilt. (People v. Jones (1975), 60 Ill. 2d 300, 308.) It seems to me, however, that this is precisely what my colleagues have done, for if Ina Lewis was believed by the jury, as she obviously was, there existed no doubt as to defendant’s guilt. As in any vigorously contested two-week trial, there are, as the majority points out, some discrepancies in her testimony. She was, however, substantially corroborated by the other testimony and the physical facts. The proof leaves no real doubt of the defendant’s guilt, and I cannot conceive that the jury could have found otherwise, with or without the arson evidence. If the admittedly erroneous admission of evidence of a murder during an armed robbery trial does not constitute reversible error, and this court so held in People v. Tranowski (1960), 20 Ill. 2d 11, I cannot agree that the arson evidence, even if erroneously admitted, requires reversal here. MR. JUSTICE RYAN joins in this dissent.