People v. Zielinski

Mr. PRESIDING JUSTICE SIMON

delivered the opinion of the court:

At issue here is what to do when a criminal defendant absconds in the middle of his trial. The defendant absented himself during the last part of his jury trial. He was convicted of armed robbery (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 38, par. 18 — 2) and aggravated battery (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 38, par. 12 — 4) and sentenced to concurrent terms of 20 to 40 years and 3 years and 4 months to 10 years in the penitentiary. On appeal, Zielinski contends he was denied a fair trial (i) because the court did not wait two full court days in his…