People v. Williams

2021 IL App 190584-U

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. DEANGELO L. WILLIAMS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 4-19-0584

Court of Appeals of Illinois, Fourth District

September 14, 2021

This Order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1).

Appeal from the Circuit Court of Piatt County No. 18CF43 Honorable Jeremy Richey, Judge Presiding.

PRESIDING JUSTICE KNECHT delivered the judgment of the court. Justices Harris and Steigmann concurred in the judgment.

ORDER

KNECHT PRESIDING JUSTICE

¶ 1 Held: The evidence was sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt defendant knowingly possessed the methamphetamine and cocaine found in the vehicle he rented shortly before his arrest.

¶ 2 After a bench trial, defendant, Deangelo L. Williams, was convicted of unlawful possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver (720 ILCS 646/55(a)(1), (2)(B) (West 2018)), unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver (cocaine) (720 ILCS 570/401(c)(2) (West 2018)), and unlawful possession of a controlled substance (cocaine) with intent to deliver with a prior conviction for unlawful delivery of a controlled substance (720 ILCS 570/402(c) (West 2018)). On two of the counts, defendant was sentenced to concurrent terms of six years' imprisonment. Defendant appeals, arguing the State failed to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt as the evidence was insufficient to show he knowingly possessed the controlled substances. We affirm.

¶ 3 I. BACKGROUND

¶ 4 In May 2018, defendant was arrested after 13.6 grams of cocaine and 5.1 grams of pills containing methamphetamines were found in a stalled vehicle he had been driving. Defendant did not own the vehicle. He was charged with the above-listed offenses.

¶ 5 In May 2019, a bench trial was held on those charges. The State's first witness was Justin Ernst, a deputy with the Piatt County Sheriff's Office and the arresting officer. On May 21, 2018, at approximately 9:30 p.m., Deputy Ernst was dispatched to Interstate 72 to assist a motorist. When Deputy Ernst arrived at the vehicle, he found a vehicle straddling the fog line in the roadway. Deputy Ernst passed the vehicle and parked in front of it. He observed a male, defendant walking toward the vehicle. Deputy Ernst approached defendant, who mentioned he and his girlfriend, Shamya Murphy, were returning from Chicago. Murphy was not, however at the vehicle when Deputy Ernst arrived.

¶ 6 According to Deputy Ernst, defendant "appeared rather worked up for his car being out of gas." Defendant's voice and demeanor prompted the feeling "something else was going on there." Deputy Ernst's first priority was to get the stalled vehicle off the roadway. He stood near the driver's side door as defendant opened the door. Defendant was unable to find the keys. Defendant said Murphy who had been driving, may have taken them with her. At this point, Deputy Ernst observed a plastic bag on the rear floorboard, behind the front passenger seat. Deputy Ernst explained what happened next:

"Q. Now you said that once you had-you saw the substance-the hard yellow substance on the rear passenger floorboard, you asked the defendant what the substance was. What, if anything, did he do once you asked him about that?

A. Denied knowledge.

Q. Did he do anything physically?

A. Yeah, he bent down and hit his head on the driver's side window.

Q. When-did you-once you saw him lean over and hit his head on the driver's side window, when you say that, was he facing the driver's side of the vehicle when he did that?

A. I don't remember which way he was facing, but I know he did it with the side of his head.

Q. Once you saw this substance, what if anything did you do with defendant at that point?

A. After he slammed his head against the window, I placed him in handcuffs for his safety and mine."

¶ 7 After placing a handcuffed defendant in the rear seat of the squad car, Deputy Ernst retrieved the plastic bag from the floorboard. He searched the vehicle and found additional contraband: "I located another bag about the same, and then I believe there was another baggy, three other baggies in the passenger side pocket door-the pocket." Deputy Ernst agreed the area where he found "other baggies" was commonly referred to as the map pocket on the door. Two bags contained a hard, yellow substance. The second bag was found between the seat and the seat belt, near the "A-pillar" on the passenger side. The baggies in the map pocket contained various colored pills. Deputy Ernst found $199 in cash on defendant's person.

¶ 8 Deputy Ernst testified efforts were made to locate Murphy. A Monticello police officer went to the area. Others attempted to contact her by phone. She was not located.

¶ 9 On cross-examination, Deputy Ernst testified it was dark when he approached defendant and the vehicle. Traffic was light. The only artificial light originated from Deputy Ernst's squad car and passing headlights. For the most part, the vehicle was stopped in an area surrounded by farm fields. From the time Deputy Ernst observed defendant walking toward the vehicle, he did not observe defendant run or attempt to conceal or throw anything. Defendant complied with the deputy's request to attempt to start the vehicle or put it into neutral. Deputy Ernst first saw contraband when defendant opened the door to try to start the vehicle.

¶ 10 Deputy Ernst testified the second bag with the hard yellowish substance was found next to the seat. It was concealed from the driver's side view. If the passenger was "reaching down to get a seat belt, you know, you could've seen it." When questioned that was a" [p]retty tight squeeze," Deputy Ernst testified" [h]e should've seen it." The other items in the map pockets were "[m]ore narcotics." He did not recall trash or debris in the map pocket, and he testified the map pocket was open at the top and two to three inches deep. The vehicle was not registered to defendant.

¶ 11 Deputy Ernst was unable to tell the distance between the Ford Taurus and the residence of Jill Lubbers. Deputy Ernst had received radio traffic reports of a female walking on Interstate 72 and seeking assistance. He recalled defendant had told him he and Murphy were returning to Decatur after having purchased a pit bull puppy in Chicago. No attempts were made to find fingerprints on the plastic bags found in the car. Two cell phones were found in the vehicle. The phones were not searched.

¶ 12 The parties stipulated 13.6 grams of cocaine and 20 tablets containing 5.1 grams of methamphetamine were found in the vehicle.

¶ 13 Jill Lubbers testified she resided in a house on the north side of the interstate. "Multiple times over the years," individuals approached her house needing assistance for car problems. During the evening of May 21, 2018, defendant knocked on her door. Defendant explained he had run out of gas on the interstate. Lubbers told him she had no fuel for his vehicle but she would call the sheriff's department and ask them to assist defendant. Defendant said he did not have insurance. Lubbers told him "they don't care if you don't have insurance, they'll come and help you anyway." Defendant headed back to his vehicle.

¶ 14 On cross-examination, Lubbers testified she lived in a rural area. There was one other house on the other side of the interstate, and it was vacant. The crops had not grown in the fields. There was a lot of vacant dark farmland around her house. Lubbers stated at her house there were five steps to walk up to her porch. There was a little rock garden. Lubbers agreed there were plenty of places to hide things. Lubbers did not recall if defendant asked to use her phone to call someone to pick him up. Lubbers watched defendant walk back toward his car.

¶ 15 Chad Ramey, a detective with the Decatur Police Department, testified as an expert in narcotics distribution. According to Detective Ramey, a "dosage unit" of crack cocaine was approximately 0.2 grams, about the size of a pencil's eraser. The street value for one dose was roughly $20. The amount of cocaine found in the vehicle contained around 65 doses. The street value for the methamphetamine pills was $5 to $10 per pill. Detective Ramey opined defendant intended to deliver the drugs in his possession based upon a number of factors. First, the amount of crack cocaine seized indicated defendant intended to deliver the cocaine. When sold for personal use, crack cocaine was sold in $20 rocks. Detective Ramey acknowledged someone could purchase one gram for personal use "to get their money's worth." Second, there was no evidence of pipes used to smoke crack or any other drug paraphernalia. Third, currency was found on defendant. Detective Ramey acknowledged the amount found was only $199, but the fact there was cash indicated an intent to deliver. In addition, methamphetamine users typically purchased 1 to 6 pills at a time, while 20 were found in the vehicle.

¶ 16 On cross-examination, Detective Ramey testified most people did not carry $199 dollars. He agreed other factors tended to show whether the amount of a controlled substance was indicative of an intent to deliver. Those factors included the presence of scales and possibly weapons. Detective Ramey agreed he did not know if scales or weapons were recovered. Detective Ramey testified for drug dealers it would "[m]ost definitely" be helpful to obtain a search warrant to look at a suspect's cell phone. When asked how often drug dealers called the police for assistance, Detective Ramey testified, "Not a lot. I've seen some weird things throughout the years, but not a lot."

¶ 17 Defendant testified on his own behalf. Defendant resided in...