People v. Walls

Following a jury trial, defendant was found guilty of deviate sexual assault and indecent liberties with a child. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 38, pars. 11-3 and 11-4.) He was sentenced to a term of 50 to 100 years for the deviate sexual assault charge since the trial court found that the indecent liberties charge merged with that offense. On appeal defendant contends that: (1) the trial court erred in denying defendant's motion to quash his arrest and suppress evidence; (2) evidence of a separate attack denied him a fair trial; (3) rebuttal evidence was improperly admitted; (4) prosecutorial misconduct during closing argument denied him a fair trial; (5) he was not proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt; and (6) his sentence is excessive. Defendant was separately indicted for his crimes against Anna, the 14-year-old female victim involved in this case, and for the deviate sexual assault, robbery and aggravated kidnapping of Scott Staton. The State elected to proceed on the instant indictments and sought to introduce evidence of the Staton incident in this case. Defendant's pretrial motion to exclude evidence of the Staton crime was denied.