'Biased' Juror Causing Deadlock In Harrah's Murder Trial: Foreman

JOLIET, IL — Will County Judge Dave Carlson announced in open court that he received a note from the jury foreman indicating there is one juror who is biased and that woman is holding out and not allowing the other 11 members to reach a unanimous verdict in the first-degree murder case against Robert Watson.

Carlson told the courtroom, outside the jury's presence, that there has been tensions building in the jury room because of the 11-1 deadlock that has lasted for more than four hours.

"I think it's best we stop deliberations right now," Carlson told the lawyers and Watson around 8 p.m. "They can feel tension in the room."

The judge sent the jury home Thursday night and ordered them to return around 8:30 a.m. Friday to continue with deliberations. Outside the jury's presence, the judge indicated he was nowhere near ready to consider declaring a mistrial at this point.

The judge ordered the jury dinner from Giordano's and several of the pizzas were also provided to the lawyers, court personnel and Watson. Outside the jury's presence, the judge asked Watson if he had a chance to eat some of the food.

Watson responded that he thought he was getting "an entrée" for dinner. Upon further questioning, Watson told Judge Carlson he did in fact eat some of the Giordano's pizza.

Watson is on trial for the March 2019 hallway stabbing of Harrah's Casino guest, Sam Burgarino, 76, of Wisconsin.

In addition to tensions building inside the jury room because of the 11-1 deadlock, the jurors were also dealing with "terrible" odors coming from the plumbing of the 10-story courthouse. Around 5:30 p.m., Carlson had the jury stand outside the courthouse for about 15 minutes to get some fresh air. While they were gone, Carlson said that maintenance workers visited the jury room and put in an air purifier and "poured something down the drain" to eliminate the foul smell coming from the courthouse's plumbing system.

The jurors said their deliberation room smelled much better upon their return to the room to eat Giordano's for their dinner.

At 4:40 p.m., the judge learned that one of the jurors wanted to see several photographs of certain exhibits. However, those photographs pertained to photos of Watson's rambling writings in a journal found inside his backpack, recovered by Joliet police after his arrest.

"I'm not answering their question," Carlson told the lawyers gathered in his courtroom.

During the trial, the judge denied the defense's attempt to introduce Watson's writings. Therefore, Carlson indicated he was not going to let the jury review them now.

"I guess the jury is wondering why we can't see them," public defender Shenonda Tisdale told Judge Carlson.

"Because it's not admissible," Carlson told her. "Because it's not evidence."

Jury deliberations began Thursday at 12:15 p.m. in the two-week-long murder trial for Watson.

On Thursday morning, prosecutors Will Lite and Tom Slazyk made their closing arguments, as did Will County Public Defender Shenonda Tisdale on behalf of Watson, now 29.

When Tisdale reviewed the video surveillance cameras after the murder, she pointed out to the jury that Watson is holding his writing papers, covered in blood, as he runs out a casino door, setting off an alarm, on the night of March 24, 2019.

"He's holding papers in his hands, more of (the) crazy thoughts ... just none of it makes any sense," Tisdale argued. "This just never should have happened."

Tisdale urged the jury to find her client not guilty of murder, or not guilty of murder by reason of by reason of insanity. Burgarino was fatally stabbed near his hotel room on the fifth floor of the downtown Joliet casino.

Joliet police arrested Watson the following afternoon on the second floor of the Joliet Public Library.

According to Tisdale, the trial's evidence demonstrated that Watson has suffered for years from untreated schizophrenia, and he has delusional behavior. On Thursday, Tisdale replayed for the jury a several minute video clip of Watson, sitting alone near a casino restaurant, where he was writing "jumbled words" in his notebook journal.

She said Watson's journal writings were about magic, demons and abracadabra and "the chaos in his mind."

"The writings are the closest thing we have to knowing what was going on his mind," Tisdale told the jury.

Tisdale said that Burgarino's murder was without motive.

"There's been no motive established," she said. "No money missing from Mr. Burgarino, and yet the state wants you to believe there was a motive when there was not."

The victim suffered about two dozen stab wounds when he returned to his hotel floor after spending most of the night with his girlfriend on the main floor, eating at one of the Harrah's casino restaurants and visiting the casino to play craps.

"Why kill Mr. Burgarino?" Tisdale asked.

One possibility, Tisdale offered, is that in her client's delusional mind, Watson "believed was Mr. Burgarino was part of the mob or some sort of spirit."

But because Watson did not cooperate with his defense and the psychiatrists asked to evaluate him, "we are not inside Mr. Watson's head," Tisdale remarked. "Mr. Watson did not cooperate."

Tisdale told the jury that "our psychiatric care system failed Mr. Watson and Mr. Burgarino ... but it is a high bar to hospitalize someone."

The jury was told by Tisdale that "Mr. Watson was a good kid, honor roll student, smart. He could have been one of the lawyers in this room, or a judge," Tisdale remarked. "No one plans to get schizophrenia, but that's what happened."

As his mental illness became stronger, Watson's appearance has changed, Tisdale noted.

When Watson visited the Harrah's Casino in 2014, he had a hair cut, he was nice looking and clean cut. "That was before the disease," Tisdale said.

Now, he's disheveled as he's chosen to wear a gray Will County Jail uniform for his first-degree murder trial.

"I can only hope that I've been effective here," Tisdale told the jury.

For the prosecution, Assistant Will County State's Attorneys Tom Slazyk and Will Lite have argued that Watson clearly knows right from wrong and that he has been faking any mental illness in order to avoid the consequences of being convicted of first-degree murder for the senseless death of the 76-year-old Wisconsin sports bar owner.

During his closing argument, Slazyk displayed on the courtroom video screen a photo of Burgarino during a happy moment of his life. Later, Slazyk displayed a photo showing Burgarino on a stretcher in the casino elevator, surrounded by several Joliet firefighter/paramedics and police officers. They brought him to St. Joe's hospital, where he died.

His girlfriend of nine years, Denise Dixon, was in the main casino floor, playing slots, when she realized he had gone missing and had not returned from their hotel room as planned.

"Whether you like craps or not, Sam did not deserve to die," Slazyk told the jury. He was semi-retired, energetic and did not like to be bored.

As for Watson, "did he know the criminality of his conduct? Absolutely," Slazyk declared.

The reason Watson did not steal the victim's money, Slazyk said, is because fellow Harrah's hotel guest, Glen Hill, came out of his room screaming at Watson during the stabbing. Startled, Watson ran down a stairwell and ran out a casino door, setting off an alarm.

About 14 hours before the murder, Watson sneaked down a casino stairwell and stole plastic gloves from a supply cart. Watson wore the gloves during the killing, and he discarded them, along with his bloody blue and white pajama pants and his bloody pocket knife, in a large bush about a block north of the casino, Slazyk reminded the jury.

Also, less than 10 minutes before the murder, Watson moved to the hotel lobby and sat in a lounge chair where he shifted his knife from his pants pocket to his coat pocket.

"We know why," Slazyk assured the jury. "He's planning. He knows what he's doing."

Why does Watson commit the murder on the hotel's fifth floor, Slazyk remarked.

"He knows there's no cameras there," the prosecutor insisted.

The video of Watson running from Harrah's Casino less than five minutes after Burgarino's stabbing does not show a killer who looked dazed or catatonic, Slazyk stressed.

"He's hauling ass after just killing someone," Slazyk said. "Oh man! Feet, don't fail me now. He's hauling ass to get out of there. Look at him. Look, he's still running. Does Mr. Watson look lethargic? Why's he running if he doesn't know the criminality of his conduct?"

During her closing statement, Tisdale contended that if Watson wanted to get away with the slaying, he would not have been captured at the downtown public library less than two blocks from Harrah's.

After all, the Joliet train station is just a few more blocks away.

Slazyk offered the jury a different perspective on why Watson never boarded a train to get out of Joliet.

"Because he's homeless and he has no money," Slazyk said. "As far as I know, they take money to get on the train. Is he guilty? Of course he is."