People v. Berry

── People v. Berry ── Court: Appellate Court of Illinois Date: June 05, 2026 Category: General 2026 IL App (1st) 250023 No. 1-25-0023 SIXTH DIVISION June 5, 2026 NOTICE: This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1). IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS FIRST DISTRICT ) THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, ) Appeal from the Circuit Court ) of Cook County. Plaintiff-Appellant, ) ) No. 23 CR 11915 v. ) ) CHRISTOPHER BERRY, ) The Honorable ) Maria Kuriakos-Ciesil, Defendant-Appellee. ) Judge, presiding. ) JUSTICE PUCINSKI delivered the judgment of the court. Presiding Justice C.A. Walker and Justice Hyman concurred in the judgment. ORDER ¶1 Held: The trial court properly granted the defense motion to quash arrest and suppress evidence without an evidentiary hearing, and the motion established a prima facie case that the warrantless search and seizure was illegal under People v. Aguilar, 2013 IL 112116, shifting the burden to the State to prove the Terry stop was justified. The denial of the State’s request for a continuance on the hearing date marked final was within its discretion. ¶2 The State appeals the grant of defendant Christopher Berry’s motion to quash his arrest and suppress evidence, claiming reversible error occurred when the trial court granted the motion to quash without a hearing. We affirm. The motion alleged sufficient facts to establish a prima  1-25-0023 facie case that the police officers’ actions were not justified; the trial court properly denied the State’s request for a continuance to produce a second police officer to testify at a hearing on the motion to quash where no response to the motion to dismiss was filed, one arresting police officer was present in court and available to testify, the State's reason for the absence of the second police witness was unreasonable, and no proffer as to the expected testimony at the suppression hearing was provided. The State did not meet its burden to show the stop and seizure were justified. ¶3 BACKGROUND ¶4 On July 18, 2023, Berry was arrested. In November a grand jury indicted him on two felony charges, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon (720 ILCS 5/24-1.1(a) (West 1992)) and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon 720 ILCS 5/24-1.6(a) (1)/(3) (C) (West 1992) The record reveals that only one arresting officer testified before the grand jury, Chicago police officer Carl Crocker. ¶5 The court issued an arrest warrant in December, which was executed on February 28, 2024, and Berry was taken into custody. The case management order, entered the same day, specified a July 29 deadline for all pretrial motions and an October 29 deadline for the final conference. ¶6 On August 5, before trial, Berry filed a motion to quash his arrest and suppress evidence. See 725 ILCS