'He Is Not The Survivor, Find Him Guilty On All Counts': Prosecutor To Jon Hansen's Jury

JOLIET, IL — Will Shorewood 27-year-old Jon Hansen be found guilty of first-degree murder and guilty of attempted murder in the final two Joliet shootings of Romeo Nance's mass murder spree from Jan. 21, 2024? A Will County jury is now deciding those questions. At 11:45 a.m. Friday, the prosecution and the defense attorneys finished their closing arguments in Courtroom 502 of Will County Judge Jessica Colon-Sayre.

In the end, prosecutors Mark Shlifka and Alexandra Molesky implored the jury to use their common sense and reach a unanimous agreement that Hansen fired 10 bullets, striking victim Mario Guerrero once in his leg at his driveway on Davis Street in Joliet. They also told jurors that Hansen should be found guilty of first-degree murder under an accountability accomplice theory of the shooting that killed Toyosi Bakare, the 28-year-old Nigerian immigrant who was shot in the head while taking his trash out to the dumpster at the Pheasant Run apartment building where he lived with his wife.

In the final moments of Friday's trial, prosecutor Molesky held up a photo showing Bakare's widow, emphasizing that it's an insult to their intelligence for defense attorney Jeff Tomczak to suggest that his client is a survivor of Romeo Nance's murderous crime spree from that day. Molesky said Nance and Hansen gave each other a long hug that day and that Hansen referred to Romeo Nance as his guardian angel after learning of Nance's self-inflicted gunshot wound after he fled Joliet for Texas days after the shootings.

"He is not the survivor!" Molesky shouted, directing the jury's attention to Hansen seated at the defense table. "Find him guilty on all counts. Find him guilty."

Molesky suggested that Hansen expressed some relief upon learning of Nance's suicide because his friend's death meant that Nance would never be able to talk to the police about Hansen's culpability in orchestrating that day's final two afternoon shootings in Joliet. "Jon could hide behind his Guardian Angel," Molesky advised the jury.

At no point was it Nance's primary plan to die by suicide, she argued. His plan was to escape Joliet and he almost made it to Mexico, his intended destination, before being surrounded by the police and choosing to take his own life.

She called Nance's decision to pick up Hansen more than two hours after killing Nance's seven family members on West Acres Road "a final act of friendship and brotherhood."

"He wanted to survive, he wanted to escape," Molesky argued.

As for Hansen, prosecutors said he was responsible for texting and Facebook messaging several Milwaukee King gang members, including Nance, two hours before Nance killed his own family that same Sunday morning. By mid-afternoon, it was Hansen who directed those individuals to unsend all of their messages, the prosecutor emphasized. Then, while riding around inside Nance's car, she said Hansen put his phone in airplane mode for over an hour while both of the final two shootings occurred.

"He may not be a criminal mastermind, but he's not as stupid as his attorney likes you to think," Molesky told the jury.

She argued that Hansen should be found guilty of Bakare's first-degree murder under the prosecution's accountability theory.

Hansen 'A Useful Idiot' To Pin Murder On: Tomczak

During his arguments, defense attorney Jeff Tomczak implored the jury to return not-guilty verdicts for Hansen because the prosecution's evidence lacked quality and quantity. He referred to the Madison factor, wondering why the prosecution failed to call Hansen's girlfriend to testify, even though she was inside Nance's car for both of the shootings just as Hansen was.

"You're all he has. That's it," Tomczak told the jury of Hansen. "In America, he's presumed innocent. He has no need to present any evidence. Did they present you quality and quantity? Did they really do a full job? If the answer is no, sign the not guilty forms. If you do not feel Jon is treated fairly or this thing stinks, sign the not guilty forms."

Tomczak argued that Nance and Nance's girlfriend already hatched a plan to kill Nance's entire family to maintain custody of their 3-year-old little boy, Avery, who then accompanied his father as he assassinated the entire Nance family while Cleveland waited outside in her vehicle. Cleveland also bought a second vehicle the day before the shooting, and that vehicle still had dealer plates; Tomczak suggested that the owning of two vehicles was part of the Nance and Cleveland's plan to get away with the slayings.

As for his own client's affiliation with Milwaukee Kings and spewing hatred toward the rival Vice Lords street gang members, including during one fight inside the Louis Joliet Mall where Hansen filmed himself, Tomczak told the jury, "None of those messages share a criminal intent. Do not fill in the blanks. It's unrebutted. He was not gangbanging. I apologize, the defendant was a useful idiot to ride around with (a crazed assassin and madman like) Romeo Nance. They want the Big Kahuna, they want murder, and they want attempted murder."

Because Romeo Nance was dead, the police and prosecutors had no one left to hold accountable for all nine of the Joliet shootings, including the eight homicides of that day. Then, they realized Hansen, his childhood pal, spent part of that Sunday afternoon riding around the car with him, Tomczak explained for the jury. A few months later, Hansen was jailed and charged with murder and attempted murder.

"The Big Kahuna. They wanted the Big Kahuna," Tomczak told the jury. "Why is he not just charged with possession of the gun?"

Hansen led the police to a Springfield handgun that he disposed of in DuPage River shortly after getting a ride back to Shorewood. "If Romeo survives," Tomczak asked the jury to contemplate, "would Jon Hansen be sitting here charged? I don't think so. The useful idiot. The guy in the car. We can get him ... because Romeo Nance killed himself and a whole lot of other people, (Hansen is) sitting there," Tomczak said of his client. "There's no evidence he fired that shot."

Tomczak said that the defense only showed the graphic and disturbing videos and crime scene photos from the Nance killings because "you need to get a feel for Romeo ... we will say their names because they matter," Tomczak said, then reciting the names of all the shooting victims.

As for Romeo Nance, "he was deadly to every person around him, including his sisters and his mother," Tomczak pointed out.

Tomczak insisted that his client had no clue in the world that Nance had just killed his entire family when Hansen and Hansen's girlfriend went for the afternoon ride with Nance a couple of hours after the seven family members were slain.

Tomczak reminded the jury how it's almost Halloween, a very scary time of the year. "Halloween. You want to get scared? Think about that car ride," Tomczak said, referring to his client ultimately learned that Romeo Nance had a death wish and was homicidal, suicidal and talked about everyone "including Jon" dying during a police shootout. "

As for his client's actions and decisions on Jan. 21, 2024, Tomczak looked at his client and remarked, "This is a kid from Shorewood. I hate to call him that, but he was the useful idiot to Romeo Nance, not the brightest bulb ... he's a tough talker, a wannabe and he got in the car."

During the outset of Friday's closing arguments, prosecutor Mark Shlifka told the jury that his side put forth overwhelming evidence showing how Hansen was responsible for ordering members of the Milwaukee Kings to participate in some Joliet drive-by shootings later that day that would target the Vice Lords. "This is nation business," one of Hansen's deleted Facebook messages showed.

Shlifka pointed out there was an assault rifle, various handguns and ammunition all over Nance's car when Hansen got into his car that afternoon. "And he gets right in and they carry out the plan," Shlifka argued.

If Hansen was only a keyboard warrior, as the defense contends, why did Hansen order Nance to stop at the 7-Eleven so that Hansen could purchase a set of gloves for himself, Shlifka asked the jury, explaining both of them already had ski masks that were necessary for the drive-by shootings.

Shlifka maintained that their gang-affiliated messages leading up to that day's shootings showed how Hansen was considered the treasurer and Nance was known as an enforcer. "They were there to torch mother f****s," Shlifka told the jury, speaking of Hansen and Nance.

Why did Hansen send out a Facebook message to the others ordering them to delete all of their previous messages, Shlifka asked the jury to consider. Why did Hansen write, "I don't want no one to say a word," Shlifka pointed out.

Shlifka wanted the jury to think about a bank robbery and how there's probably a driver, a lookout and the gunman. Just because the driver and lookout did not rob the bank does not mean they are not equally culpable of committing the crime, and that's how the jury should view the evidence in regard to the last two shootings with Hansen.

The fact that Hansen never obtained his desired Milwaukee Kings tattoos of the numbers 11 and 13 underneath his eyelids does not mean the jury should find him not guilty, Shlifka emphasized to the jury.

"He did all the planning ... he's the architect of this attack."