People v. GarvinPeople v. Garvin
delivered the opinion of the court:
Following a stipulated bench trial, the defendant, Raymond E. Garvin, was convicted of burglary (
On January 17, 2002, the defendant was charged by indictment with burglary, theft, and possession of burglary tools (
On March 22, 2002, the defendant filed a motion to suppress the evidence resulting from his stop by police. On May 9, 2002, the trial court conducted a hearing on the motion to suppress. Officer Henninger (his first name is not revealed in the record) of the Franklin Park police department was the sole witness. Officer Henninger testified that at some time prior to 4:45 a.m. on December 29, 2001, he was on patrol, just west of Mannheim Road, when he received a message from dispatch that there was a complainant at the Amoco gas station on Mannheim Road. The complainant was reporting that there was a van in the Amoco parking lot with license plates that had been stolen off of his company van.
Officer Henninger proceeded to the Amoco parking lot. He observed a white van with a CompUSA logo on the side, facing north. Beside the van, facing south, was a white vehicle that Officer Henninger believed to be either a Ford Thunderbird or a Mercury Cougar. Officer Henninger spoke with the complainant, Gerhardt Roth. Roth pointed out the white CompUSA van. Roth stated that he had noticed the van and a white car, which had been following the van, near his company, T&T Express. Roth followed the van and the white car into the Amoco parking lot. Roth pointed out three men who were in the parking lot. According to Roth, all three men had been “in or around” the van. Officer Henninger identified in court the defendant and his two codefendants, Michael Bennett and Lewis Taylor, as the three men whom Roth had pointed out in the Amoco parking lot.
After talking with Roth, Officer Henninger ran the license plates on the van and confirmed that they had been stolen. Officer Henninger also ran the vehicle identification number on the van and learned that the van had been stolen. After determining that the plates and the van had been stolen, Officer Henninger spoke with two of the three men, although he could not recall which two. While he was speaking with the two men, Officer Henninger received a message that the Bensenville police department was looking for a white CompUSA van and a white Mercury Cougar that may have been involved in a theft from Emery Worldwide in Bensenville earlier that morning.
Officer Henninger determined that Taylor had an outstanding warrant for his arrest and arrested him. Officer Henninger also arrested the defendant and Bennett for possession of the stolen vehicle and plates.
On cross-examination, Officer Henninger admitted that two vehicles were towed from the Amoco parking lot, the white CompUSA van and a white Dodge Dynasty, which belonged to Taylor.
Following the hearing, the trial court denied the motion to suppress evidence obtained from the stop. The trial court reasoned that probable cause existed to arrest the defendant because all three men arrived at the gas station at the same time, knew each other, and had been in and around the stolen van.
On February 7, 2002, the trial court conducted a stipulated bench trial. Before the stipulated evidence was presented, the State agreed to nol-pros the possession of burglary tools charge. Subsequently, the State and the defendant agreed that Paul Coken, an employee of Emery Wordwide, would testify that at around 3:40 a.m., on December 29, 2001, he observed a white van with a CompUSA logo on the side and a white passenger vehicle leaving Emery Worldwide’s loading dock area. The two vehicles had no business being in that area. A semi-tractor trailer near the loading dock was being used to store computer equipment. Coken notified police. Several hours later, when the defendant and the van were apprehended, Coken was called by police to identify the contents of the van. Coken identified several boxes of computer equipment that belonged to Emery Worldwide and had been in the semi-tractor trailer.
Several Franklin Park police officers would testify that they were dispatched to an Amoco gas station to investigate a case concerning a white CompUSA van with stolen license plates. When they arrived at the gas station, they found the defendant, Bennett, and Taylor. Taylor was sitting in a white passenger vehicle. The defendant and Bennett were inside the gas station, buying lottery tickets. The police officers found the defendant’s wallet and an article of Bennett’s clothing inside the CompUSA van. The police officers also found COBRA handheld, two-way radios in the van. The police officers found a matching radio in the white passenger car. After he was arrested, the defendant admitted to Franklin Park police that he was in the area of Emery Worldwide earlier that morning.
Finally, Sergeant Hawkins of the Bensenville police department would testify that Emery Worldwide is located in Bensenville, which is in Du Page County, Illinois. She would further testify that after the defendant was arrested, he requested that his wallet be retrieved from the CompUSA van.
Following the stipulated testimony, the trial court found the defendant guilty of burglary and theft. The trial court sentenced the defendant to 6V2 years’ imprisonment for each offense, the sentences to run concurrently. It ordered the defendant to submit a blood sample for genetic marker testing pursuant to
The defendant’s first argument on appeal is that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress the evidence from his stop. The defendant argues that the police lacked probable cause when they arrested him for possession of the stolen vehicle. He argues that incriminating statements that he made to the police subsequent to his arrest, such as asking for his wallet and admitting that he was in the area of Emery Worldwide, were “fruits of the poisonous tree.”
Before addressing the merits of the defendant’s argument, we must first establish the proper standard of review, on which the parties disagree. Generally, a ruling on a motion to suppress is subject to the manifest error standard of review. People v. Scott,
In order to make a valid, warrantless arrest, a police officer must have probable cause to arrest. People v. Robinson,
In a motion to suppress, the initial burden of proof is on the defendant. People v. Bobiek,
A person’s mere proximity to others independently suspected of criminal activity does not, without more, give rise to probable cause to search or seize that person. Drake,
In this case, we do not believe that the police had probable cause to arrest the defendant. When they arrested him, the police knew merely that the defendant had been “in or around” a stolen van. This sole fact did not warrant the defendant’s arrest. The defendant could have been in or around the van for any number of lawful reasons. The fact that the defendant was in or around the van warranted reasonable suspicion, a standard less than probable cause, which would have entitled the police to question the defendant and investigate the situation further. Instead of doing so, however, the police simply arrested the defendant. Because the police lacked probable cause when they arrested the defendant, the trial court should have suppressed any harmful statements made by the defendant subsequent to his arrest.
That said, we do not believe that the trial court’s failing to grant the motion to suppress warrants a reversal of the defendant’s burglary and theft convictions. We believe that the error was harmless. An error is harmless where the reviewing court is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the error did not contribute to the defendant’s conviction. People v. St. Pierre,
In reviewing the facts of the present case, the defendant’s request for his wallet and his admission that he was in the area of Emery Worldwide were not material to the trial court’s guilty finding. Other competent evidence that was introduced at the trial overwhelmingly established the defendant’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt. For instance, in the early morning of December 29, 2001, an employee of Emery Worldwide in Bensenville observed a white van with a CompUSA logo on the side and a white passenger vehicle near Emery Worldwide’s loading dock. Computer equipment was being stored in that area in a semi-tractor trailer. The police found a white van with a CompUSA logo and a white passenger vehicle in the Amoco parking lot in nearby Franklin Park. Police determined that the van was stolen. The defendant and two companions were found around the stolen van. Police inventoried the contents of the van and found $40,000 worth of computer equipment belonging to Emery Worldwide, a wallet stipulated by the defendant to be his, an article of clothing belonging to one of the codefendants, and handheld, two-way radios. The police found a matching handheld radio in a passenger vehicle, which was being driven by the other codefendant. The above evidence was all admissible and would not have been subject to exclusion as fruit of the poisonous tree because it either was discovered by an independent source, was sufficiently distant in causal connection from the illegal seizure, or inevitably would have been discovered even absent the unlawful arrest. See People v. Williams,
We note that in his brief, the defendant argues that there was nothing in the wallet that was found in the van that would have identified him as the wallet’s owner. The defendant argues that without any evidence to link him to the wallet, the evidence would have been insufficient to convict him. First, there is nothing in the record to confirm the defendant’s assertion regarding the wallet. Regardless, the defendant cannot now claim that the wallet was not his, because he stipulated at the trial that it was.
In summary, because there was sufficient and competent evidence presented at the trial that clearly established the defendant’s guilt, the trial court’s admission of the defendant’s two statements was harmless. Thus, the defendant’s first contention is without merit.
The defendant’s next contention is that
As a preliminary matter, the State argues that the defendant has waived his second contention by failing to contemporaneously object or raise the issue in a posttrial motion. See People v. Robinson,
The fourth amendment, applicable to the states through the fourteenth amendment, provides all people with the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures.
We note that all 50 states and the District of Columbia have enacted genetic marker testing statutes. See
These statutes have been challenged in courts- of numerous jurisdictions. All, to date, have been held to be constitutional. See Velasquez v. Woods,
In considering the issue of genetic marker testing, the foregoing courts have taken two approaches in their fourth amendment analyses, those being a balancing test (see, e.g., Gaines,
This court has previously rejected the special needs approach in favor of the balancing approach. See Wealer,
With regard to the defendant’s expectation of privacy, it is well established that convicted persons, including those on probation, lose some rights to personal privacy that would otherwise be protected under the fourth amendment. Griffin v. Wisconsin,
As to the intrusive nature of the search, courts considering fourth amendment challenges have universally determined that a blood draw from a convicted person to gather genetic information for identification involves only a minimal intrusion. See, e.g., Gaines,
Consistent with the foregoing considerations, we find that
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the circuit court of Du Page County is affirmed.
Affirmed.