People v. McLaurin
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Chicago sergeant Fraction testified that she was sitting alone in an unmarked police vehicle and observed McLaurin leave a building “carrying a silver handgun.” McLaurin entered a white van, which drove away. Calling for backup, Fraction followed and never lost sight of the van. Within minutes, the van was stopped by officers. McLaurin and two other men were ordered out of the vehicle. Fraction identified McLaurin and described a handgun that was recovered by police as “the same color [and] size of the handgun I saw.” Rodriguez, among the officers who stopped the van, testified that he had looked underneath the vehicle and saw the 9-millimeter chrome handgun on the ground but that he did not see anyone place or throw anything underneath the vehicle. McLaurin argued that no officer had seen any of the van's doors open, nor did any of them see an object being thrown underneath the van and that Fraction could only describe the gun's color and size.
The Illinois Supreme Court affirmed McLaurin’s convictions: armed habitual criminal (720 ILCS 5/24-1.7(a)), unlawful use of a weapon by a felon (5/24-1.1(a)), and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon (5/24-1.6). Viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the state, it was not so unreasonable, improbable, or unsatisfactory that no rational trier of fact could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that McLaurin possessed a firearm as defined by the FOID Act.
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