People v. Smith

Defendant, Alton Smith, was found guilty of robbery by a jury and sentenced to a term of from five to fifteen years in the penitentiary in the Circuit Court of Rock Island County.

On the afternoon of August 21, 1989, Harvey Mead went to a tavern in Rock Island. Earlier in the day he had borrowed two hundred dollars from a credit union and at the time he went into the tavern he had nine twenty dollar bills and some other currency in his wallet. Mead took a seat at the bar next to the defendant, ordered a drink and struck up a conversation with defendant, a person with whom Mead was not…