People v. Wallace

── People v. Wallace ── Court: Appellate Court of Illinois Date: June 05, 2026 Category: General 2026 IL App (4th) 250795 FILED June 5, 2026 NO. 4-25-0795 Carla Bender 4th District Appellate IN THE APPELLATE COURT Court, IL OF ILLINOIS FOURTH DISTRICT THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, ) Appeal from the Plaintiff-Appellee, ) Circuit Court of v. ) Tazewell County JIMMIE L. WALLACE, ) No. 23CF357 Defendant-Appellant. ) ) ) Honorable ) Christopher R. Doscotch, ) Judge Presiding. JUSTICE HARRIS delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. Justices DeArmond and Grischow concurred in the judgment and opinion. OPINION ¶1 Following a stipulated bench trial, defendant, Jimmie L. Wallace, was convicted of unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon (UPWF) (720 ILCS 5/24-1.1(a) (West 2022)) and sentenced to three years and two months in prison. He appeals, arguing that (1) the trial court improperly denied his motion to suppress evidence against him and (2) the UPWF statute is unconstitutional, both facially and as applied to him. We affirm. ¶2 I. BACKGROUND ¶3 On May 22, 2023, at approximately 2 a.m., officers with the Pekin Police Department conducted a traffic stop of a vehicle in which defendant was a passenger. The stop resulted in a search of the vehicle, as well as a backpack that defendant had attempted to remove from the vehicle but was told to leave inside. An officer discovered a firearm in the backpack, and defendant acknowledged that he had purchased the firearm and knew it was in the backpack. In June 2023, defendant was charged by indictment with UPWF (id.). The charge was based on allegations that he possessed a gun after having previously been convicted of the felony offense of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance in Peoria County case No. 11-CF-42. ¶4 In March 2024, defendant filed a motion to suppress the evidence against him. He argued that the traffic stop, his detention, and his arrest were unlawful and that the police violated his constitutional rights by ordering him to exit the vehicle without his backpack. Defendant asked the trial court to suppress evidence obtained from the searches of the vehicle and his backpack, along with statements he made to the police. ¶5 In January 2025, the trial court conducted a hearing on defendant’s motion to suppress. Pekin police officer Tyler Bucco testified that at around 2 a.m. on May 22, 2023, he was on patrol in Pekin and observed a male, later identified as defendant, standing on a corner near a Circle K gas station. Defendant stared as Bucco drove by, and Bucco parked in a nearby parking lot to “wait for a call to come through from dispatch.” Bucco denied seeing defendant earlier the same morning. He also described the Circle K as being in “a high crime area.” He asserted that drug deals occurred at that location and he had made approximately five methamphetamine-related arrests at Circle K in the two and a half years he worked for the Pekin Police Department. ¶6 While parked, Bucco observed a female, who was driving a Niss