People v. Cruz

Following a jury trial in the circuit court of Cook County, the defendant, Victor Cruz, was found guilty of the attempted murder of Javier Garcia on January 14, 1982. Cruz was sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment. On appeal Cruz contends that the trial court erred and that he was denied a fair trial because the State was erroneously permitted to present to the jury a highly inflammatory, prejudicial and inadmissible documentary video film, entitled “Street Wars,” in an unsuccessful attempt to impeach his testimony on a purely collateral and irrelevant matter. We reverse and remand for a new…