People v. Shick

Case Date: 01/25/2001
Court: 3rd District Appellate
Docket No: 3-99-0326 Rel

January 25, 2001

No. 3--99--0326


IN THE

APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS

THIRD DISTRICT

A.D., 2001

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF
ILLINOIS,

          Plaintiff-Appellee,

          v.

RICHARD SHICK,

          Defendant-Appellant.

)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
Appeal from the Circuit Court
of the 12th Judicial Circuit,
Will County, Illinois,


No.  96--CF--4494

Honorable
Gerald Kinney,
Judge, Presiding.
 

JUSTICE SLATER delivered the opinion of the court:


After a jury trial, defendant, Richard Shick, was convicted of armed robbery (720 ILCS 5/18--2(a) (West 1996)) andsentenced to a 10-year term of imprisonment. On appeal, defendant contends: (1) the trial court erred by denying hismotion to quash arrest; (2) the trial court erred by denying his petition to appoint a special prosecutor; (3) he receivedineffective assistance of counsel; and (4) his sentence is excessive. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

On August 27, 1996, Stacie Flores was working as a cashier at a convenience store located at the intersection of U.S. Route52 (Route 52) and Illinois Route 59 in Shorewood, Illinois. At approximately midnight, a man wearing a mask, a red shirt,denim jeans, and brown work boots entered the store carrying a sawed-off shotgun and demanded that Flores fill a bag withthe contents of the cash register. Flores complied and observed the man flee on foot heading west. Flores then activatedthe store's silent alarm.

Shorewood police officers responded shortly thereafter. After interviewing Flores, one of the responding officers spoke toCraig Wagner who had been dining at a restaurant located across the street. Wagner related that a waitress had come intothe restaurant and announced that a robbery was taking place across the street. Upon exiting the restaurant to investigate,Wagner observed a man wearing a red shirt and blue jeans walking unhurriedly between some buildings west of theconvenience store. He was carrying a brown bag and another unidentified object. Wagner observed him get into a whiteChrysler New Yorker or Fifth Avenue with an obscured license plate and head west on Route 52.

At the time of the robbery, Angelo Sallese, a Minooka, Illinois, police officer, was on patrol within Minooka. Atapproximately 12:16 a.m., Sallese heard a bulletin concerning the robbery over the Wescom system, a police radio bandserving the Shorewood, Channahon, and Plainfield police departments. According to the bulletin, an armed robbery hadtaken place in Shorewood and a suspect driving a white Chrysler with an obscured license plate had been seen headingwestbound on Route 52. Sallese proceeded north on Ridge Road toward the intersection of Ridge Road and Route 52.

At a location outside of Minooka approximately two miles north of Interstate 80 (I-80), and some distance south of Route52, Sallese encountered a white Chrysler traveling southbound on Ridge Road. The area has a posted speed limit of 55miles per hour (mph). Although Sallese did not lock his radar gun on the Chrysler, he noted that the radar gun indicated thecar was traveling at 30 to 35 mph. By the time Sallese passed the car, it had accelerated to 60 to 65 mph.

Sallese turned his vehicle around and began to follow the Chrysler. Sallese could not read the Chrysler's entire license platenumber because the plate was bent. Sallese then informed the Wescom dispatcher that he believed he had found theShorewood armed robbery suspect. While keeping the Wescom dispatcher apprised of his location, Sallese followed theChrysler onto eastbound I-80. The Wescom dispatcher informed Sallese that other police units were on their way.

Eventually, Sallese followed the Chrysler to the junction of I-80 and Interstate 55 (I-55) where police from Shorewood,Channahon, Plainfield, Joliet, the Will County Sheriff's Department, and the Illinois State Police had taken position. Sallese followed the Chrysler onto the on-ramp to the southbound lanes of I-55. Sallese and other police units activatedtheir mars lights. The Chrysler stopped some 200 to 300 feet south of the on-ramp. Sallese stopped his squad car two tothree car lengths behind the Chrysler and shined his spotlight on the vehicle. While Sallese stood in front of his squad carwith his gun drawn and targeted on the Chrysler, defendant exited his vehicle, was handcuffed, and was placed in thebackseat of a Shorewood squad car.

Shorewood police escorted Stacie Flores to the scene of the traffic stop. Flores identified a red shirt and a brown work bootrecovered from defendant's vehicle as items of clothing that her assailant had been wearing. She also identified defendantas being the same height and body type as her assailant.

Police also recovered a pair of blue jeans, shotgun shells, and a brown bag filled with cash during a search of defendant'svehicle. Officer Sallese later recovered a makeshift mask and a sawed-off shotgun from an area along Ridge Road wherehe had first come upon defendant's vehicle.

Defendant moved to quash his arrest on the ground that he had been subject to an invalid extraterritorial arrest. The trialcourt denied the motion.

I.

On appeal, defendant contends that the trial court erred by denying his motion to quash arrest. In particular, defendantmaintains that his arrest was an invalid extraterritorial arrest because Officer Sallese was outside of his jurisdiction when hestopped defendant's vehicle.

Initially, we agree with defendant that we may not consider changes to the law effected by the enactment of Public Act 89--404 (Pub. Act 89--404, eff. August 20, 1995). Among other things, Public Act 89--404 amended section 7--4--8 of theIllinois Municipal Code (65 ILCS 5/7--4--8 (West 1996)) and added subsection 107--4(a--3) to the Code of CriminalProcedure of 1963 (725 ILCS 5/107--4(a--3) (West 1996)). These changes expanded the authority of police officers to actoutside of their jurisdiction. Our supreme court has held that Public Act 89--404 was enacted in violation of the IllinoisConstitution's single subject rule (Ill. Const. 1970, art. IV,