{
  "id": 2553165,
  "name": "THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. DALLAS TAYLOR, Defendant-Appellant",
  "name_abbreviation": "People v. Taylor",
  "decision_date": "1991-01-04",
  "docket_number": "No. 3-90-0429",
  "first_page": "206",
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    "id": 8837,
    "name": "Illinois Appellate Court"
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      "cite": "24 Ill. App. 3d 504",
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      "reporter": "N.E.2d",
      "weight": 2,
      "year": 1974,
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    {
      "cite": "49 Ill. App. 3d 367",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ill. App. 3d",
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T17:11:09.339704+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
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  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. DALLAS TAYLOR, Defendant-Appellant."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "PRESIDING JUSTICE STOUDER\ndelivered the opinion of the court:\nThe trial court convicted the defendant, Dallas Taylor, of misdemeanor theft (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 38, par. 16 \u2014 1(a)(1)) and sentenced him to 11 months in jail. The defendant appeals.\nAccording to an agreed statement of facts contained in the record on appeal, Leverne St. Peter testified at the defendant\u2019s trial that he worked for Bennett & Brosseau Roofing in Kankakee. As he was standing approximately three lots west of Bennett & Brosseau, he saw the defendant dragging some aluminum. St. Peter stated that Bennett & Brosseau kept unmarked scrap aluminum on its property. When asked whether anyone else in the community used this type of aluminum, he stated, \u201cI guess we\u2019re the only ones who use this.\u201d St. Peter identified pieces of aluminum as that which the defendant had been dragging.\nDeputy Ken Ponton testified that he found the defendant and St. Peter at the scene and arrested the defendant. He also seized the aluminum in question.\nThe defendant testified that he found the aluminum in a grassy area of some property belonging to a feed store. He thought it was abandoned and started dragging it away to sell for scrap. He acknowledged that he had not asked the feed store owner for permission to take the aluminum.\nThe defendant argues on appeal that the State did not prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, since it failed to show that he possessed scrap aluminum belonging to Bennett & Brosseau. In particular, he notes that there was no evidence Bennett & Brosseau was even missing any aluminum, let alone any specific evidence identifying the aluminum as belonging to it.\nProof that one other than the accused owns or has a superior property interest in the property allegedly stolen is an essential element of the offense of theft. (People v. Cowan (1977), 49 Ill. App. 3d 367, 364 N.E.2d 362.) Where property is of such a character that it cannot be positively identified, circumstantial evidence may be used to prove that the items in the defendant\u2019s possession were taken from the victim. People v. Miller (1974), 24 Ill. App. 3d 504, 321 N.E.2d 109.\nIn the instant case, the State offered no evidence that Bennett & Brosseau was even missing any aluminum. The State argues on appeal, however, that convictions have been upheld in analogous cases. (People v. Rogers (1959), 16 Ill. 2d 175, 157 N.E.2d 28; People v. Miller (1974), 24 Ill. App. 3d 504, 321 N.E.2d 109; and People v. Mertens (1979), 77 Ill. App. 3d 791, 396 N.E.2d 595.) We find that the cases cited by the State are inapposite. Although, as here, the property allegedly stolen in all three cases was of a type which could not be specifically identified as that which had been stolen, every case cited by the State contained evidence that identical property was missing from a specific owner. Given the lack of any such evidence in this case, we find that the State failed to prove the ownership element beyond a reasonable doubt. We must therefore reverse the defendant\u2019s conviction. People v. Cowan (1977), 49 Ill. App. 3d 367, 364 N.E.2d 362.\nThe judgment of the circuit court of Kankakee County is reversed.\nReversed.\nBARRY and GORMAN, JJ., concur.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "PRESIDING JUSTICE STOUDER"
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Peter A. Carusona, of State Appellate Defender\u2019s Office, of Ottawa, for appellant.",
      "William Herzog, State\u2019s Attorney, of Kankakee (John X. Breslin, and Rita Kennedy Mertel, both of State\u2019s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor\u2019s Office, of counsel), for the People."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. DALLAS TAYLOR, Defendant-Appellant.\nThird District\nNo. 3\u201490\u20140429\nOpinion filed January 4, 1991.\nPeter A. Carusona, of State Appellate Defender\u2019s Office, of Ottawa, for appellant.\nWilliam Herzog, State\u2019s Attorney, of Kankakee (John X. Breslin, and Rita Kennedy Mertel, both of State\u2019s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor\u2019s Office, of counsel), for the People."
  },
  "file_name": "0206-01",
  "first_page_order": 228,
  "last_page_order": 230
}