Harrah's Defendant Climbed Water Tower Naked, Wanted 'To See God': Testimony

JOLIET, IL — Dr. Monica Argumedo testified Tuesday morning that Joliet Harrah's Casino first-degree murder defendant Robert Watson suffers from an untreated diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Over the past four years, Dr. Argumedo interviewed Watson multiple times in connection with his murder case. Watson's lawyers from the Will County Public Defender's Office have mounted an insanity defense in connection with the March 24, 2019, fatal stabbing of Sam Burgarino, 76, inside the Harrah's Casino hotel.

Argumedo told the jury she is a psychiatrist at the Rush Oak Park Medical Center.

During questioning from public defender Shenonda Tisdale, Argumedo told the jury that Watson had a normal upbringing and childhood. Watson went off to college and when he dropped out, his life began to spiral downward.

He developed an alias, Allen Bolden, according to the defense's psychiatrist. Argumedo suspected that Watson started feeling "a certain level of paranoia," and began to suffer from schizophrenia.

Around the ages of 19 or 20, Watson "was also fearful of the mob," Argumedo told the jury.

She said he came up with the false identity of "Allen Bolden so people would not be able to find him."

Over the past several years, Watson often self-reported himself to a local mental health facility, suggesting he was having suicidal thoughts. On many of these occasions, Watson was also using cocaine and marijuana.

"He was described as disheveled. He would stare intensely and expose himself," and make lewd comments to the staff, the psychiatrist testified. On other times, "he suddenly became aggressive."

On one occasion when Watson had suicidal thoughts and depression, he ran toward a hospital door in the middle of the night, pounding on the door, screaming for medication.

Ten years ago, in 2013, Watson was admitted to the Winter Haven Hospital in Florida. Watson had climbed a water tower while naked. He admitted to hearing voices and threatened to jump from the water tower, "saying he wanted to see God," according to Argumedo.

"They released him, and that was it," she testified.

After the psychiatric hospitalization in Florida, Watson moved from state to state, making it difficult for doctors and medical professionals to track him and assess his mental illness.

When he moved to Texas to stay with an aunt, Watson began throwing himself to the ground and having tantrums. He also called the police suggesting he knew who committed the Boston Marathon bombings, Dr. Argumedo testified Tuesday.

Around this time, Watson developed his delusional behavior regarding food and water that remains a preoccupation to this day, the jury heard.

Watson became obsessed with melting the snow in his yard because Watson believed the tap water that ran through the faucets was being poisoned to control his mind. He started "bizarre religious writings" that were not consistent with his mother's faith, Dr. Argumedo testified.

By his early 20s, Watson bounced around the country, often as a homeless person. He was arrested several times for stealing food and criminal trespass in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Arizona.

Watson exposed himself in a Wisconsin laundromat, and there have been several times since his arrest on the first-degree murder charges where Watson began masturbating in front of the Will County Jail staff, according to the testimony.

"These are common crimes we see when people have schizophrenia," Argumedo told the jury.

In the end, Dr. Argumedo said her findings are inconclusive as to Watson's sanity at the time of the murder. She pointed out that he bought all his food — Little Debbie Honey Buns — at the jail commissary because he was convinced the jail staff had poisoned his food trays. He's also gone for several months without showering and caring for his hygiene at the jail.

If Watson has been faking his mental illness to avoid prosecution, he deserves to win an Oscar because his performance over the past 10 years has been unbelievable, Dr. Argumedo told the courtroom.

"I do not believe he has malingered those symptoms ... to avoid prosecution."

During the afternoon court session, Will County prosecutor Tom Slazyk reminded the jury that the defense's own expert witness could not say Watson was insane at the time of Burgarino's murder.

"You cannot tell members of the jury whether he's sane or insane?" Slazyk asked.

"Yes, that's correct," Dr. Argumedo agreed, during cross-examination.

Slazyk reminded the defense's psychiatrist that Watson was in at least three different hospitals over the years, and none of those doctors diagnosed him with schizophrenia.

In the naked water tower incident in Florida, Watson told authorities "he had smoked some marijuana today and had auditory hallucinations," the prosecutor informed the jury. "Grandma agreed, he smoked some weed and had a reaction to it," Slazyk explained.

In 2018, about six months before the Joliet murder, Watson was in St. Bernard Hospital in Chicago for depression. He showed up intoxicated, above the legal limit to be drunk in Illinois, Slazyk noted. About a month before the Harrah's murder, Watson was kept for four days at St. Mary's Hospital in Chicago because he was suicidal and suffering from depression.

Slazyk reminded the defense psychiatrist of numerous instances over the years involving run-ins with police and security in which Watson distinguished right from wrong.

When Watson lived in Las Vegas, police arrested him for having six or seven stolen credit cards in his pockets from a woman named Kimberly.

He also had several other arrests in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he hid food and beer bottles in his pockets and ran out of the respective stores without paying for the merchandise.

"I know in your report you say there was no real motive why Mr. Watson wanted to kill Mr. Burgarino," Slazyk told the defense psychiatrist.

"I said without a clear motive," she replied.

"Isn't it true he was homeless, and he needed money?" Slazyk told the doctor.

"I know he was homeless," Dr. Argumedo answered.

Slazyk reminded the witness that in 2017, two years before the Joliet murder, Watson was arrested in Dallas, Texas, for choking a customer standing in line to buy groceries.

As Watson choked the customer, he was accused of reaching into their pockets to steal their money.

Dr. Argumedo testified she did not know of that incident because she did not have those police reports.

Slazyk brought up another Watson arrest, in Arizona.

"The trespassing at a house, that one?" she asked.

The jury learned Watson trespassed at the house in Arizona that was for sale, and Watson made a Papa Murphy's pizza there.

One of the most important observations Dr. Argumedo saw from reviewing the Harrah's Casino surveillance tapes was Watson sitting at a bar table and writing in his notebook.

Slazyk wondered why she wasn't attentive to other aspects of the Harrah's casino surveillance, showing Watson stealing the latex gloves from a cart in the stairwell several hours before the murder. The prosecutor reminded her that Watson darted out a casino door, triggering an alarm, within minutes of the murder.

Watson also took off his bloody clothes — after the murder — hiding them in a bush, about two blocks from the casino, Slazyk reminded the defense psychiatrist.

"But him sitting at a table, sitting writing on paper, that was more important? Is that what you're telling members of the jury?" Slazyk questioned.

"No," she answered.