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| Court orders new trial for man convicted in 2009 Aurora robbery |
| By chicagotribune.com - Clifford Ward |
| Published: 09/24/2013 |
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After Aurora police got a tip in 2009 that a parolee might have been involved in robberies, a detective slipped a GPS tracker on a car the man was driving. When the device showed the car was near a convenience store at the time of a holdup, the information helped lead to the man's arrest. Keith LeFlore, 56, was later convicted of aggravated robbery in Kane County and sentenced to 20 years in prison, a longer-than-usual term of incarceration based on LeFlore's criminal history. But last week, an appeals court ordered a new trial for the former Aurora resident, with the court finding that the manner in which the GPS device was used may have violated LeFlore's constitutional rights. The appellate panel, which issued its ruling Tuesday, also found that the trial court failed to properly advise LeFlore that he faced an enhanced sentence, rather than the 15-year maximum term for an aggravated robbery. That failure was a crucial oversight because LeFlore had fired his public defender before trial and represented himself, the appeals court said. LeFlore's previous experience in the court system — he has felony convictions dating to the 1980s, according to state prison records — could not make up for the lack of competent legal counsel, according to Appellate Judge Susan Hutchinson. "A long rap sheet is not the equivalent of a juris doctorate," she wrote. In January 2010, a Kane County jury found LeFlore guilty in the April 25, 2009, stickup of a gas station on Aurora Avenue. A masked man entered the store about 4:40 a.m. armed with what appeared to be a shotgun. A day before the robbery, an Aurora police detective, acting without a search warrant, placed a GPS tracker on a car belonging to LeFlore's girlfriend in an apartment parking lot. Police had received a tip that LeFlore may have been involved in a series of robberies. The GPS tracker indicated the woman's car was near the gas station just before the holdup. Police questioned LeFlore, and they said he admitted wrapping a black metal cane in plastic to simulate the appearance of a shotgun. He said he must have committed the holdup, though he claimed to have been drinking heavily that night and said he did not actually recall the crime. At a pretrial hearing, his public defender sought to quash evidence gathered with the tracker, arguing that it constituted an illegal search and violated the Fourth Amendment. Trial Judge Allen Anderson, who has since retired, disagreed and allowed the GPS evidence at trial. However, last year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal agents without a warrant acted unconstitutionally when they placed a tracker on a vehicle used to transport drugs. "It is important to be clear about what occurred in this case: The Government physically occupied private property for the purpose of obtaining information," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote. "We have no doubt that such a physical intrusion would have been considered a 'search' within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment when it was adopted." Read More. |
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