{
  "id": 3356173,
  "name": "THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. JOHN RIDLEY, Defendant-Appellant",
  "name_abbreviation": "People v. Ridley",
  "decision_date": "1978-04-10",
  "docket_number": "No. 77-33",
  "first_page": "164",
  "last_page": "168",
  "citations": [
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    "name_abbreviation": "Ill. App. Ct.",
    "id": 8837,
    "name": "Illinois Appellate Court"
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    "name_long": "Illinois",
    "name": "Ill."
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    {
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      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ill. App. 2d",
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T17:17:36.138296+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. JOHN RIDLEY, Defendant-Appellant."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Mr. JUSTICE O\u2019CONNOR\ndelivered the opinion of the court:\nDefendant, John Ridley, was charged with theft from Mary Newton of property of the value of less than $150 (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 38, par. 16 \u2014 1(a)(1)), found guilty after a bench trial and sentenced to two years probation. He appeals, contending that he was not proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.\nMary Newton testified that at about 2:30 p.m. on May 23,1976, she was at home at 6943 South Wolcott, Chicago, and was awakened after hearing some noises in her house and seeing shadows moving by her bedroom door. She was not alarmed and went back to sleep. About 3 p.m. her mother came home and discovered that the house had been burglarized.\nMary Newton went to the basement and discovered that a lock had been broken off the door where she kept her Sears stereo component set with two large speakers. This set and speakers, together with five eight-track tapes and some records were missing. She called the police and reported the theft.\nOn July 30, 1976, she looked in the basement of the house next door at 6945 South Wolcott, occupied by the Ridley family, and saw her stereo set, speakers and tapes. She notified the police, who recovered her property identified by her and returned it to her in August. On cross-examination, she stated that she had not seen the burglary. She also testified that although two speakers and five tapes were stolen from her, she signed a complaint against defendant alleging four speakers and eight tapes were stolen. Before the start of the trial, the complaint was amended to cover two speakers. She kept the four speakers and the eight tapes the police had returned to her. Some of her mother\u2019s tapes had also been stolen. She further testified that she didn\u2019t know whether defendant lived at 6945 South Wolcott. She did know that he went there and that his mother, sister and brother lived there.\nChicago Police Officer Gerald Beam testified that on July 30, 1976, he and his partner went to 6945 South Wolcott with a search warrant. Theron Ridley, defendant\u2019s brother, was sitting on the front porch. They asked him if he lived there and when he said that he did, they served a copy of the search warrant on him and advised him they were going to search the home. They did and found the property listed in the warrant in a bedroom in the basement, recovering one Sears component stereo set, four speakers, eight-track tapes and some record albums. Mary Newton subsequently identified the property. The officers asked Theron whose room it was and he said it was the defendant\u2019s bedroom. The officers also found a wallet on the dresser of the bedroom. The wallet contained several documents on which defendant\u2019s name appeared.\nOfficer Beam further testified that on August 12,1976, after obtaining an arrest warrant for defendant, he and his partner, Ted Nykasa, went to the Ridley home. Defendant\u2019s mother answered the door and stated that defendant was not home at that particular time. She stated, in response to a question, that the room in which the property was recovered was defendant\u2019s. The police gave her a card and asked her to have defendant contact them. She said if and when she saw him she would give him the card and ask him to call them. About 4:30 p.m. that day, defendant went to the police station, was arrested and given Miranda warnings. Defendant denied any knowledge or ownership of the property and that the room in which it was found was his.\nOfficer Beam testified on cross-examination that the basis for the arrest warrant for defendant was the finding of the wallet in the room with the stereo and the statement of defendant\u2019s brother that the room was defendant\u2019s. He also testified that the brother, Theron, was arrested for possession of stolen property and referred to the Juvenile Court.\nDefendant\u2019s mother, Mrs. Alberta Ridley, testified that on July 30,1976, she'rented the apartment at 6945 South Wolcott and lived there with three of her children, Brayleen, Gammey and Theron. The defendant, her son John, was not living with her at that time. He had lived there over a year before when she first moved to that address. He visits her there. She testified that she had not told Officer Beam that the room in which the stereo was found was defendant\u2019s. When he asked her if defendant was there, she said he wasn\u2019t and, when asked if he lived there, she said he did not. She said she didn\u2019t know the stereo was there. On cross-examination she stated that the room in which the stereo was recovered was Theron\u2019s, and not defendant\u2019s. She further testified that defendant lived with his girl friend, Brenda Kirsee, in the 6700 block of Hermitage.\nDefendant testified that since July of 1975 he had lived at 6746 South Hermitage with Brenda Kirsee and her two dependent children. Before then he had lived at 6945 South Wolcott. When he lived there, his bedroom was down front near Theron\u2019s. He stated that he did not know Mary Newton personally and had not taken her property. He did not know how the stereo came to be in his mother\u2019s apartment. He has a Sears stereo of his own at the Hermitage Avenue address. He went to the police station voluntarily.\nDefendant further testified that he left his wallet at his mother\u2019s when he played basketball, in order not to lose it. He left it in a dining room area, not the room where the stereo was. He came back to his mother\u2019s a day or so later. The room in which the police found the stereo and his wallet was Theron\u2019s, not his. He stated that he didn\u2019t recall, but it was possible that he left an address if someone wanted to reach him. When he cashed checks he used his mother\u2019s address.\nBrenda Kirsee testified that she, defendant and her two children had lived at 6746 South Hermitage since July 3, 1975. Since then defendant had possibly visited his mother as many as 200 times. There was a stereo with speakers in her apartment. She further stated that the bedroom on South Wolcott in which the stereo was found was defendant\u2019s before he had moved in with her. She had been in that apartment and in that room several times, but had not been in the apartment since July, 1975.\nOfficer Beam testified that he had arrested Theron for possession of stolen property.\nThe State contends that defendant was found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt because the evidence showed that he was in exclusive, unexplained possession of recently stolen property.\nConstructive possession is enough to convict for theft (People v. Walker (1964), 54 Ill. App. 2d 365, 204 N.E.2d 141, appeal denied (1965), 31 Ill. 2d 631), but if the place where the goods were found was equally accessible to others who were capable of having committed the theft, an inference of defendant\u2019s guilt cannot be made from that fact alone. People v. Robbins (1974), 21 Ill. App. 3d 317, 315 N.E.2d 198.\nThe evidence upon which the State relies to connect defendant with the room where the property was found was: defendant\u2019s wallet was found in the room with the stolen property; testimony of a police officer that defendant\u2019s mother and brother had told him that the room in which the property was found was defendant\u2019s; and defendant\u2019s use of his mother\u2019s address when cashing checks. This evidence was insufficient to show that the defendant had exclusive possession of that room. Defendant testified that he had left his wallet in another part of his mother\u2019s apartment so that he wouldn\u2019t lose it while he played basketball nearby.\nOfficer Beam\u2019s testimony that defendant\u2019s mother and brother Theron had told him that the room was defendant\u2019s was hearsay. An objection to the testimony concerning Theron\u2019s statement was sustained and defendant\u2019s mother denied that she had so stated; in fact, she had told Officer Beam that defendant did not live there and that the room in which the property was recovered was Theron\u2019s, not defendant\u2019s.\nDefendant testified that the room was not his but Theron\u2019s and that since July of 1975 he had lived at 6746 South Hermitage with Brenda Kirsee and her two dependent children and only visited his mother. Brenda Kirsee corroborated his testimony.\nThe use by defendant of his mother\u2019s address for the purpose of cashing checks had no necessary connection with the place of his actual residence. It could well have been only because he was living with a woman with two \u201cdependent\u201d children.\nIn addition, the police had no personal knowledge of where defendant resided. The complaining witness could not testify that defendant lived in his mother\u2019s apartment. Defendant testified that he did not take complainant\u2019s property and did not know how it came to be in his mother\u2019s apartment. The room was accessible to defendant\u2019s mother and her three children who lived there, one of whom was defendant\u2019s brother Theron. Except for the hearsay testimony of the police officer, the testimony was that the room was not defendant\u2019s but that of his brother Theron. It was the latter who gave the police officer permission to enter the room. Theron was arrested for possession of stolen property.\nThe evidence is so unsatisfactory as to raise a reasonable doubt of defendant\u2019s guilt.\nJudgment reversed.\nMcGLOON and BUCKLEY, JJ., concur.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Mr. JUSTICE O\u2019CONNOR"
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "James J. Doherty, Public Defender, of Chicago (Judith A. Stewart, Assistant Public Defender, of counsel), for appellant.",
      "Bernard Carey, State\u2019s Attorney, of Chicago (Lee T. Hettinger, Joan S. Cherry, and Thomas X. Smith, Assistant State\u2019s Attorneys, of counsel), for the People."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. JOHN RIDLEY, Defendant-Appellant.\nFirst District (1st Division)\nNo. 77-33\nOpinion filed April 10, 1978.\nJames J. Doherty, Public Defender, of Chicago (Judith A. Stewart, Assistant Public Defender, of counsel), for appellant.\nBernard Carey, State\u2019s Attorney, of Chicago (Lee T. Hettinger, Joan S. Cherry, and Thomas X. Smith, Assistant State\u2019s Attorneys, of counsel), for the People."
  },
  "file_name": "0164-01",
  "first_page_order": 186,
  "last_page_order": 190
}