People v. Abbott

Mr. PRESIDING JUSTICE REARDON

delivered the opinion of the court:

The defendant, Frank Edward Abbott, was sentenced to 3 to 9 years in the penitentiary after a Coles County jury found him guilty of burglarizing the T. V. Janes Furniture Store in Mattoon in violation of section 19—1 of the Criminal Code of 1961 (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 38, par. 19—1).

On October 2,1976, Mattoon detective James M. Sestina allegedly was in the course of a stakeout or surveillance patrol near the T. V. Janes store at approximately 1:30 a.m. Sestina testified that he was surreptitiously observing the store pursuant…