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Roberts v. People

Case Date: 12/29/2000
Court: 1st District Appellate
Docket No: 1-98-3642 Rel

FIFTH DIVISION

December 29, 2000

No. 1-98-3642

GERRYROBERTS,)Appeal from the
)Circuit Court of
Appellant,)Cook County.
)
v.
         )      No. 95 CR 14600 and 95 CR
)14601, cons.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS,)
)Honorable
Appellee. )Lon William Shultz,
)Judge Presiding.

JUSTICE GREIMAN delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant Gerry Roberts (Roberts) was convicted of vehicular hijacking (720 ILCS 5/18-3(a) (West 1994)) in a bench trial on April 8, 1995. On May 13, 1997, the court sentenced him to18 years' imprisonment. On September 5, 1997, Roberts pled guilty to burglary (720 ILCS5/19-1(a) (West 1996)) and was sentenced to six years imprisonment. On June 15, 1998, Robertsfiled a pro se petition for postconviction relief under the Post-Conviction Hearing Act (the Act)(725 ILCS 5/122-1 et seq. (West 1998)) for case number 95 CR 14601, where he pled guilty to theburglary. However, he raised issues that only concerned his vehicular hijacking case, 95 CR14600. Acknowledging that Roberts' petition was intended to address issues from the hijackingcase, the lower court reviewed his petition and then dismissed it for failing to raise issues of merit. Defendant now appeals, arguing that the trial court erred in dismissing his postconviction petitionas frivolous and without merit and that violations of the United States Supreme Court's decision inApprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. __, 147 L. Ed. 2d 435, 120 S. Ct. 2348 (2000), and the singlesubject clause of the Illinois Constitution (Ill. Const. 1970, art. IV,