State v. Bell

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

O’HERN, J.

Defendants, Gregory Bell and Anthony Pegúese, were convicted on four counts involving the breaking and entry of an apartment dwelling in Englewood. Their sole ground of appeal is that they were denied the effective assistance of counsel because they were both represented by public defenders from the same office.

I

The case has the following background. On December 7, 1978, at about 10:30 a. m., a neighbor heard an apartment being ransacked. Her call brought the police to the scene. Another neighbor coming home saw two men walking down the…