JOLIET, IL — At just 26 years old, former Joliet resident Kayla Robinson testified Wednesday afternoon how she has been a widow since Jan. 21, 2024 — her husband Toyosi Bakare went outside to throw away their garbage at the Joliet Township Pheasant Run apartments along South Chicago Street and never made it back inside their building.
The Nigerian immigrant who worked in computers and as a DoorDash delivery driver became the ninth person in Joliet to be shot during the daylong crime spree in 2024.
Prosecutors argue that Jon Hansen, a Milwaukee Kings gang member from nearby Shorewood, was out prowling for Vice Lords to shoot when he directed his lifelong pal, Joliet mass murderer Romeo Nance, to drive over to the Pheasant Run apartments that day in search of Vice Lords to kill.
Nance and Hansen had been childhood friends since second grade. After the Pheasant Run deadly shooting of Bakare, Nance dropped off Hansen and Hansen's pregnant girlfriend and fled to Texas, trying to reach Mexico, but he never made it. Nance died near an interstate gas station, taking his own life after a police dragnet cornered him.
In Courtroom 502 of Will County Judge Jessica Colon-Sayre, Will County prosecutor Alexandra Molesky furnished her witness with a photograph showing Robinson and Bakare sharing smiles during Robinson's cap and gown graduation ceremony from medical assistant school.
"Yes, that's my late husband," she testified.
Robinson explained she has worked as a receptionist for the past five years and that she and Bakare had been married for over a year. They dated for six months beforehand.
Robinson told the jury she and her mother were out grocery shopping and "he approached me in a Meijer's while I was getting groceries. He was asking if I was single and from the area," she testified of her future husband.
She and Bakare ended up living at the Pheasant Run apartment buildings off South Chicago Street in the Preston Heights area, just outside city of Joliet limits. She said Bakare worked in information technology, as a computer programmer, working for companies all over the world. They would send him a work tickets and he would try to fix their computer problems.
To help supplement their income, Bakare also drove for DoorDash, she testified.
At the time of his murder, Robinson said they lived at the Pheasant Run apartments for more than a year.
"On Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024, were you home?" inquired prosecutor Molesky.
"Yes, Toyosi, and our two dogs, yes," Robinson replied.
"What was going on?"
Just regular chores, laundry and cleaning, the widow testified
Bakare had been sleeping until early afternoon. Once he woke up, he played video games and went to take out the trash.
"He had red flannel pants on and a coat," Robinson told the jury. "Just regular Christmas pajama pants."
Robinson described the late January weather as "cold. It was lighter than dark by the time I realized he was gone too long."
Because Bakare never made it back to their apartment after taking out their trash, Robinson became puzzled, especially when around 30 minutes passed.
She used her iPhone's find a phone app in order to discover the whereabouts of her husband's phone.
"His phone pinged at the front entrance of the apartment complex ... I just went outside, yellow tape, police officers, police lights," Robinson testified she remembered seeing. "I do recall I was asking and they were not able to identify anybody at that point."
Moments later, she realized the police had in fact recovered Bakare's cell phone because when she called his phone from the crime scene tape, it showed her name in Nigerian on his iPhone screen.
"I've seen my name in his phone before," she testified.
Police at the scene let her know that the person who was shot wore "red checkered pants that had been rushed to the hospital," she told the jury.
Robinson, along with her mother and brother, went to the Will County Sheriff's Office station on Laraway Road, which was where "they told me he had passed," she testified.
Molesky, the prosecutor, then asked if "Mr. Bakare was in a street gang? Did you know Mr. Bakare to associate with any street gang members?"
No, and no, Bakare's widow repeated.
The very last time she ever saw her husband alive was when he left their apartment to take out their trash, she testified.
The prosecution team of the Will County State's Attorney's Office suggested during Tuesday's opening statements that Hansen — rather than Nance — shot both Bakare and another Joliet man on Davis Street who was wearing a Chicago Bulls sweater, because Hansen saw their red and black clothing and believed they were Vice Lords when in reality, they were not part of any street gangs.
Mario Guerrero, the Hispanic man shot in the leg unloading his groceries, was in his 40s and did not speak English.
On cross examination, lead defense attorney Jeff Tomczak of the Tomczak Law Group delicately asked Robinson if it was her belief that the Pheasant Run apartments where she and Bakare resided was known gang territory?
"I didn't really know the area," she answered him.
Eyewitness Saw Bakare Alive, Then "Lifeless"
After Robinson finished testifying, prosecutor Mark Shlifka called Larry Thomas, a gray-bearded bald man who now resides in Hillside and works at a warehouse.
In 2024, he lived at Joliet's Pheasant Run apartment complex. Thomas said he was familiar with Bakare from seeing him around the complex, but he really didn't know him that well as a neighbor.
On the day of Joliet's worst murder spree in decades, Jan. 21, 2024, Thomas testified he was sitting inside his car for several minutes in the apartment complex parking lot when he saw Bakare.
"He was putting some trash in the Dumpster. Nothing other than that. I was just sitting in my car. He was walking down the driveway."
Thomas testified that about 10 minutes later, he finally put his Buick LaCrosse into drive and headed out of the apartment complex, heading to the Jewel grocery store.
On his way out, driving northbound, Thomas saw the same man he knew to be Bakare.
"Just laying there, lifeless," he told the jury.
Thomas drove past the man and headed to the grocery store. He was not in a position to call 911. He did not have a cellphone, he testified. Also, Thomas testified, he did not know there was a shooting, or a drive-by shooting. He never heard any gunshots, and he did not see any vehicles pull into the apartment complex to fire upon Bakare and shoot him dead.
Hansen's first-degree murder trial will resume Thursday. Prosecutors have indicated the trial may last at least three weeks. The defense lawyers maintain that Hansen never once fired a gun in either of those shootings on Davis Street or at Pheasant Run. They maintain that all of that day's nine shooting victims were shot by Romeo Nance.
Read more Patch trial coverage:
Sign up for free local newsletters and alerts for the
Joliet Patch
Patch.com is the nationwide leader in hyperlocal news.
Visit Patch.com to find your town today.