Warrant to Search An Apartment Resulted In a Death Sentence

In People v. Eyler, 133 Ill. 2d 173, 202, 139 Ill. Dec. 756, 549 N.E.2d 268 (1989), a dismembered body was discovered in eight garbage bags in a Dumpster. The janitor assigned to the defendant's apartment building saw the defendant leave his building three times carrying four silver garbage bags and one large "bundle." Each time he returned to the building, the defendant carried nothing. Although the janitor told the defendant to deposit trash only in the Dumpster assigned to his building, he saw the defendant throw the bundle into a Dumpster used by the tenants of an adjacent building. Eyler, 133 Ill. 2d at 186. Another janitor watched the defendant deposit two heavy trash bags into the Dumpster. Early the next morning, a third janitor discovered the contents of the packages that the defendant dumped. the three janitors described their observations to the police, and based on the information, an officer obtained a warrant to search the defendant's apartment. Eyler, 133 Ill. 2d at 187-88. The supreme court affirmed the defendant's convictions and death sentence, concluding that the officer's complaint for the warrant established probable cause to search the apartment. Eyl er, 133 Ill. 2d at 203.