Defendant was found guilty of unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon and was sentenced to seven years in prison. On appeal, defendant argued that that he was denied the ineffective assistance of counsel when his trial counsel withdrew a motion to suppress even after an officer admitted there was no lawful basis for the traffic stop that led to the discovery of a handgun in defendants car and the State did not prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt that he knew about the handgun that police found in his car. The appellate court reversed, finding that when viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State neither the facts nor the reasonable inferences to be drawn from those facts could support the trial court’s finding of guilt. (C.A. WALKER, concurring and TAILOR, dissenting)
Illinois Appellate Court
Criminal Court
Sufficiency of the Evidence