Murder Victim's Blood Found On Blaique Morgan's Black Nikes: Witness

JOLIET, IL —Bianca Rodriguez testified in Will County Judge Vince Cornelius' courtroom 404 on Friday afternoon that her then-boyfriend, Blaique Morgan, told her that he killed his next door neighbor, 62-year-old Bob Bielec, in 2016.

Now 25 years old, Rodriguez was called to testify by Assistant Will County State's Attorney Alyson Wozniak, the third day of Morgan's first-degree murder trial. Morgan waived his right to a jury trial, preferring to have Judge Cornelius determine whether he is guilty of beating his neighbor to death in Bielec's driveway during the late night hours of Jan. 7, 2016.

The Morgans and Bielec were next door neighbors for several years in Joliet Township's Preston Heights area near Route 53. Younger brother Amari Morgan is also awaiting his own murder trial.

Wozniak asked the witness whether she knew Blaique Morgan.

"He was my boyfriend on and off for a few years," Rodriguez told the courtroom. They met when she was a high school freshman.

At the time of Bielec's killing, Rodriguez was a Joliet Junior College student who had a part-time job on Jefferson Street working at the Mr. Submarine. On the night of the killing, Jan. 7, 2016, she worked at the fast-food restaurant from 5 p.m. until around 11:30 p.m.

"Anything unusual?" Wozniak asked the murder defendant's former girlfriend.

"I was getting calls from Blaique. I was told to get him and get some shoes. He had his things at my house," she testified.

Evidence Found On Nicholson Street

In 2016, Rodriguez lived with her father and her father's roommate on Nicholson Street in Joliet.

Rodriguez testified that she drove to the Preston Heights area to pick up her boyfriend at a friend's house.

"See anything unusual?" Wozniak asked again.

"They were taking out trash. He and his brother, just bags to the garbage, to the dumpster. I picked him and his brother up, him and Amari," Rodriguez testified.

Rodriguez said she dropped off Amari at the brothers' grandfather's house.

After Amari was no longer around, Blaique Morgan made an admission while the couple sat in her car, Rodriguez told the courtroom.

"That he had killed Bob," Rodriguez revealed.

She then drove Blaique Morgan to her house on Nicholson Street.

"It was just a mutual decision to go," she testified.

Did Rodriguez remember anything else about that night, Wozniak inquired.

"He was just laughing, that he killed his neighbor," the girlfriend testified.

There were about a half-dozen green Waste Management garbage cans up against the house on Nicholson Street. Blaique Morgan tossed his pair of black Nike Air gym shoes along with his brother Amari's purple Adidas shoes into the same empty trash can, according to Rodriguez.

Rodriguez acknowledged in court Friday that she had signed a use immunity agreement presented by the Will County State's Attorney's Office in exchange for her truthful testimony.

Back in 2016, when Will County Sheriff's detectives interviewed her, she did not implicate Blaique Morgan as being responsible for Bielec's violent death.

Instead, Rodriguez claimed Amari Morgan "swung the baseball bat and Bob got killed."

On Jan. 8, 2016, Blaique Morgan told Will County Sheriff's Detectives R.J. Austin and Jeff Grozik that he and his brother attacked Bielec, but claimed they did so in self-defense, thinking he had a gun. Blaique Morgan said they killed him with a baseball bat.

Rodriguez testified her romantic relationship with Blaique Morgan ended Jan. 8, 2016, which was the day he got arrested on first-degree murder charges.

Now 26, Morgan has lived in the Will County Jail ever since, six entire years plus 10 months.

"I mean, there was no relationship," she told the lawyers. "What I am going to do with somebody in jail?"

Bielec's Lifeless Body Found

Scott Hanson was a firefighter/paramedic for the East Joliet Fire Department on the night of Jan. 7, 2016. Before his ambulance arrived at 1704 Houston Ave., Hanson was told by 911 dispatchers that someone had fallen with head injuries.

"There was a large amount of blood," Hanson testified Friday.

He checked Bielec for signs of life in the victim's driveway. There were none.

"He definitely had an open skull fracture with brain matter exposed," Hanson testified.

Hanson recalled the East Joliet paramedics only stayed another 10 minutes. Bielec's driveway was deemed a crime scene, and the investigation was turned over to Will County Sheriff's police.

Will County CSI Finds Bloody Shoes

On Jan. 8, 2016, Terry Bergin was a Will County Sheriff's CSI. He retired last year. He was sent to Bianca Rodriguez's house on Nicholson Street to search the green trash bins out front.

When he got to the second green bin, Bergin saw four shoes at the bottom of the can and no other garbage. He photographed and bagged the shoes. They were marked with evidence tags and later sent off to the Northeastern Illinois Regional Crime Lab for forensic analysis.

Four days later, on Jan. 12, Detective Austin obtained buccal swabs and fingerprints from Blaique Morgan and Amari Morgan.

Friday's last prosecution witness to testify was Sarah Owen of the Northeast Illinois crime lab. She received the buccal swabs of the Morgan brothers, blood stains taken from Bielec's side door of his house, as well as several articles of clothing belonging to the Morgan brothers.

Owen also examined the black Nike Air shoes of Blaique Morgan and the purple Adidas shoes of Amari Morgan — the shoes recovered from the bottom of the trash receptacle on Nicholson Street.

Owen, an expert witness on DNA analysis, was asked by the prosecutor whether her forensic testing found any blood stains or DNA from the shoes.

On one of Blaique Morgan's black Nikes, "I obtained a full DNA profile that matched the full DNA profile of Robert J. Bielec," Owen testified Friday afternoon. "I did observe red, brown stains on one of the shoes."

From the inside of the shoes, Owen testified she obtained a full DNA profile of Blaique Morgan, the murder defendant.

Regarding the purple Adidas, Owen found red and brown stains on each shoe. The blood stains contained a full DNA profile for Bielec, the victim. She obtained a major DNA profile from the inside of the gym shoes for Amari Morgan, Owen told the courtroom.

Shenonda Tisdale and Gabriel Guzman are the two Will County Public Defenders assigned to represent Blaique Morgan. Guzman had a chance to cross-examine Owen.

Guzman asked the DNA expert if several other articles of clothing taken from Blaique Morgan, including his belt and a black Nike zip-up hoodie, contained the victim's DNA or blood.

"No human blood," she testified.

Owen also testified the murder defendant's right gym shoe did not contain any blood victims of the victim.

At 4:07 p.m. Owen finished testifying. Judge Cornelius said the prosecution's case will resume at 10:30 a.m. on Monday. The Will County State's Attorney's Office bench trial is being handled by assistant state's attorneys Alyson Wozniak, Mike Fitzgerald and Aristotelis Theodorou.

Joliet Patch's Ongoing Trial Coverage:

Baseball Bat Murder Defendant: 'We Really Did Believe He Had A Gun'

Victim's Skull Crushed By Baseball Bat: Joliet Murder Trial Starts