People v. Clark

(Court opinion corrected 4/8/16.) Defendant was charged with multiple offenses, including aggravated vehicular hijacking while armed with a firearm and armed robbery while armed with a firearm, for accosting a man who was parking his vehicle in his garage, taking it from him. Plain language of Sections 18-2(a)(1) and 18-4(a)(3) of Code of Criminal Procedure explicitly excludes possession or use of a firearm.  Thus, a violation of Sections of Code for offenses committed with firearms and those Sections for offenses committed with weapons other than firearms are mutually exclusive. Although Defendant was acquitted of the charged firearm offenses, he stands convicted of and sentenced for uncharged offenses he did not commit. Improper convictions and sentences are corrected via remedial application of plain error.Convicting a defendant of an uncharged offense that is not a lesser-included of offense of a charged offense violates a defendant's due process right to notice of the charges against him.Appellate court properly reduced degree of convictions to lesser-included offenses of vehicular hijacking and robbery and remanded for resentencing. (GARMAN, FREEMAN, THOMAS, KILBRIDE, BURKE, and THEIS, concurring.)