{ "id": 5320135, "name": "The People of the State of Illinois, Defendant in Error, vs. Charles Sleezer, Plaintiff in Error", "name_abbreviation": "People v. Sleezer", "decision_date": "1956-05-23", "docket_number": "No. 33850", "first_page": "57", "last_page": "62", "citations": [ { "type": "official", "cite": "9 Ill. 2d 57" } ], "court": { "name_abbreviation": "Ill.", "id": 8772, "name": "Illinois Supreme Court" }, "jurisdiction": { "id": 29, "name_long": "Illinois", "name": "Ill." }, "cites_to": [ { "cite": "293 Ill. 33", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Ill.", "case_ids": [ 4986740 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/ill/293/0033-01" ] }, { "cite": "297 Ill. 116", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Ill.", "case_ids": [ 5042095 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/ill/297/0116-01" ] }, { "cite": "310 Ill. 234", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Ill.", "case_ids": [ 5109122 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/ill/310/0234-01" ] }, { "cite": "312 Ill. 73", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Ill.", "case_ids": [ 5120578 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/ill/312/0073-01" ] }, { "cite": "413 Ill. 77", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Ill.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "413 Ill. 69", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Ill.", "case_ids": [ 5313806 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/ill/413/0069-01" ] }, { "cite": "343 Ill. 78", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Ill.", "case_ids": [ 5254780 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/ill/343/0078-01" ] }, { "cite": "356 Ill. 440", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Ill.", "case_ids": [ 5804156 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/ill/356/0440-01" ] }, { "cite": "123 Ill. 436", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Ill.", "case_ids": [ 2921708 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/ill/123/0436-01" ] } ], "analysis": { "cardinality": 612, "char_count": 9421, "ocr_confidence": 0.715, "pagerank": { "raw": 4.3888309445464676e-07, "percentile": 0.919538359186192 }, "sha256": "00296a0dd1214a37b43e6445790f6ae29f3e03fe9ca1d0cd46cdf56992a4e569", "simhash": "1:4e287438fba7bedb", "word_count": 1586 }, "last_updated": "2023-07-14T19:14:15.639862+00:00", "provenance": { "date_added": "2019-08-29", "source": "Harvard", "batch": "2018" }, "casebody": { "judges": [], "parties": [ "The People of the State of Illinois, Defendant in Error, vs. Charles Sleezer, Plaintiff in Error." ], "opinions": [ { "text": "Mr. Justice Bristow\ndelivered the opinion of the court:\nThis case comes here from the circuit court of La Salle County, wherein defendant was found guilty of grand larceny and was sentenced to confinement in the Illinois State Penitentiary for a minimum term of seven years and a maximum of nine.\nThe record in this case contains more than 1400 pages and the errors assigned are many. Only briefly, however, after a careful reading of the transcript and a study of the briefs, will we indicate our conclusions. State highway patrol officers Bunton and Gauvereau were cruising on Route 71, three miles northeast of Ottawa, Illinois, at three o\u2019clock on Sunday morning, January 16, 1955. They observed defendant Charles Sleezer and one Bohlander passing them going in the opposite direction. There was noi tail light on the wagon pulled by defendant\u2019s truck so the officers turned around and pursued them several miles and caught them after they had turned upon a side road. There was loaded on the truck a farm wagon-box and hitched to1 the truck was a wagon gear with another wagon-box. Because of their failure to display a tail light and have safety chains, Bunton prepared a traffic ticket. The defendant then attempted to bribe the officers, offering $100 to \u201cfix this up.\u201d The defendant admitted to Hess, the jailer, that he had been, caught with the wagons he had picked up at an implement store, and that he was out trying \u201cto make a fast buck.\u201d In the jail conference room in the presence of Bunton and Gauvereau and deputy sheriffs Eutsey and Dummett, he admitted he had stolen the wagons from Engelhaupt & Lyons at Lostant, Illinois.\nBohlander was one of Sleezer\u2019s hired men. In the evening of January 15, 1955, at about midnight, the defendant asked Bohlander to go with him for a ride. Shortly before the first trial of this case, which resulted in a disagreement, defendant with his counsel went to- talk with Engelhaupt, the managing partner of Engelhaupt & Lyons, and there the defendant admitted he had taken the wagons and sought to pay damages for them.\nOn May 30, 1955, Louis Neuendorf, an attorney, overheard the defendant discussing his trial, which was to be had shortly, when he stated that : \u201cThe State police caught me cold stealing a wagon\u201d and \u201cHowever, at the trial which is coming up in a week or so I am going to get on the stand and tell them that I was going over to pick up some wagons for Bill Bohlander.\u201d Eighteen years previously the defendant had been convicted of a felony in Kendall County, Illinois. A record of this conviction was introduced for the limited purpose of affecting defendant\u2019s credibility and an instruction was given to the jury specifically prescribing such limitation. Complaint is made here that the record of conviction was too- copious, that it included many prejudicial features in connection with the application for probation. We do not believe that the challenged proof was violative of the principles contained in the several cases cited in defendant\u2019s brief. In submitting the complete record from Kendall County, the People were attempting to- satisfy the requirements as laid down in Kirby v. People, 123 Ill. 436.\nThe defendant testified in his own behalf, denying guilt and undertaking to explain all circumstances implying guilt. He stated that Bohlander invited his assistance and the use of the truck to pick up the wagon involved which Bohlander told him he had purchased; that when the State police approached he was told for the first time that the wagons had not been paid for, SO' he immediately started back to Lostant to return the property, when he was arrested; that the money he tendered the officers was not in the nature of a bribe but to pay a fine for traffic violations. He further explained the money he tendered the owner of the wagons was accompanied with a statement that he had not meant to steal the wagons but that he realized \u201csince Mr. Engelhaupt had not sold the wagons, anyone in possession was liable for damages sustained for the taking and I offered to pay such sum as a fair measure of damages and requested that he present such claim for damages through the State\u2019s Attorney\u2019s office.\u201d\nThere was evidence offered on both sides as to the general reputation of Sleezer and Bohlander for truth and veracity. There were those that entertained the view that Sleezer and Bohlander bore bad reputations and there were just as many that thought they were good.\nDefendant filed petitions for change of venue because of the prejudice of the judge and for a change of venue from La Salle County. The defendant had already been granted a change of venue from Judges Robert E. Larkin and Louis A. Tearing. The statute prescribes \u201cNo more than one change of venue shall be granted to the defendant.\u201d The application for a change of venue from the county was addressed to the sound discretion of the trial judge. (People v. Katz, 356 Ill. 440; People v. Cobb, 343 Ill. 78.) Judge Robert E. Larkin on June 6, 1955, prior to\" the defendant\u2019s first trial, had ruled Taylor E. Wilhelm, counsel for defendant, guilty of contempt. It appears that much publicity was accorded this event. The trial judge in the instant case excused all jurors from Judge Larkin\u2019s home town since the judge there was held in high esteem. The remaining jurors were closely questioned concerning their knowledge of the contempt proceedings. Since the defendant did not avail himself of all his peremptory challenges, it is fair to assume the jury selected was not affected by the adverse contempt publicity. The denial of defendant\u2019s motion for a change of venue from the county was not predicated upon whim, bad motive or an unjust exercise of discretion. People v. Allen, 413 Ill. 69.\nAnother assignment of error pressed with much vigor here is that the instructions read to the jury and the closing arguments of the State\u2019s Attorney incorrectly construed defendant\u2019s admission of guilt as a confession. Sleezer, Ray Eutsey, William Dummett, Glennard Bunton and Leo Gauvereau were congregated in the conference room of the LaSalle County jail at about 4:30 A.M., January 16, 1955, when the defendant was questioned, and he then said he had stolen the wagons at Engelhaupt & Lyons on Route 51 at Lostant. This was an admission of the ultimate fact that he was guilty. In People v. Allen, 413 Ill. 77, the court said: \u201cA confession has been defined as a \u2018direct acknowledgment of guilt on the part of the accused, either by a statement of details of the crime or an admission of the ultimate fact.\u2019 \u201d People v. Nitti, 312 Ill. 73-92.\nDefendant in his brief and argument complains of several instructions refused and given. We considered this assignment of error and find that it is without merit and does not warrant an extensive discussion.\nThe record in this case clearly indicates defendant\u2019s guilt. And he received a fair trial as free of error as was humanly possible under the circumstances. Defendant\u2019s counsel made it most difficult for the trial judge to conduct the proceedings in an orderly manner. On one occasion the trial court called opposing counsel to the bench for a hushed conference, but said counsel talked so loudly, his utterances could be heard by the witnesses and the jury. And again while the jury was in recess the court protested that counsel could be heard back in the quarters where the jury was located. The court would ask counsel to be seated and discontinue ranting and raving only to have him refuse to obey.\nAlmost every adverse ruling was followed with \u201cI move to withdraw a juror\u201d from defendant\u2019s counsel. It would require unwarranted space to describe the wrangling and angry disputation that punctuated the trial throughout. This belligerent aggressiveness evidently provoked the trial judge into error in some of his rulings. For instance, the State\u2019s Attorney, in his argument to the jury said, \u201cCharles Sleezer is a confirmed thief. He was a thief 18 years ago.\u201d The court overruled an objection to\u2019 this highly prejudicial statement. This was error. (People v. Decker, 310 Ill. 234.) There were other errors, but of much less consequence. Defense counsel was guilty of improprieties in his closing argument. He went beyond the record in his statement that Bohlander\u2019s testimony was the product of \u201cdeals and collusion\u201d between him and the prosecution.\nNotwithstanding the confusion of this proceeding, the jury emerged with the correct verdict.\nThe evidence here so clearly indicates defendant\u2019s guilt that we cannot say the result would have been different without trial irregularities. When the error complained of could not reasonably have affected the result, the judgment should be affirmed. (People v. Cardinelli, 297 Ill. 116; People v. Haensel, 293 Ill. 33.) The question is not whether the record is perfect but whether the defendant has had a fair trial and if his conviction is based on evidence establishing his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.\nJudgment affirmed.", "type": "majority", "author": "Mr. Justice Bristow" } ], "attorneys": [ "Taylor E. Wilhelm, of Mendota, for plaintiff in error.", "Latham CastlE, Attorney General, of Springfield, and Harland D. Warren, State\u2019s Attorney, of Ottawa, (Fred G. Leach, Edwin A. Strugala, John A. McNamara, and Frederick W. Irion, of counsel,) for the People." ], "corrections": "", "head_matter": "(No. 33850.\nThe People of the State of Illinois, Defendant in Error, vs. Charles Sleezer, Plaintiff in Error.\nOpinion filed May 23, 1956\nRehearing denied September 24, 1956.\nTaylor E. Wilhelm, of Mendota, for plaintiff in error.\nLatham CastlE, Attorney General, of Springfield, and Harland D. Warren, State\u2019s Attorney, of Ottawa, (Fred G. Leach, Edwin A. Strugala, John A. McNamara, and Frederick W. Irion, of counsel,) for the People." }, "file_name": "0057-01", "first_page_order": 57, "last_page_order": 62 }