Joan Bernal's Daughter Implores Judge Smigielski To Keep Her Dad Jailed On 1988 Murder Charges

JOLIET, IL — Will County Judge Art Smigielski will reconvene Wednesday's SAFE-T-Act detention hearing for 82-year-old Flint, Michigan resident Gilbert Bernal at 1:30 p.m. The former Joliet resident was charged in January with the December 1988 Joliet Township disappearance and murder of his wife, Joan, whose body has never been found.

Bernal has been kept in the Will County Jail since Jan. 2. He is being represented by private defense counsel, former Will County judge Dave Carlson and attorney John Fotopoulos of Orland Park.

On Wednesday morning, Gilbert Bernal's daughter, Sarita Woerheide, was called to the front of Courtroom 405 by the Will County Assistant State’s Attorney Jonathon Sakellaropoulos, and she implored Judge Smigielski to keep her father in the Will County Jail as part of the Illinois SAFE-T-Act.

Sarita was only 2 years old when her mother vanished. The family lived on the east side of Joliet at 113 Zarley Boulevard, in the Preston Heights area.

"He never had a kind word or good thing to say about my mother," Sarita testified on Wednesday in Courtroom 405. She described her father as being the real-life version of the famous novel, "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."

"Angry Mr. Hyde, it is my father," Sarita told the courtroom. Once, when Sarita was a teenager, she said her father slapped her so hard she hit the wall and lost control of her bladder. "The father I loved was completely gone. This was not an isolated incident.

"He believes he was justified in doing that. His anger entitles him to harm others."

Sarita informed Judge Smigielski that releasing her father back to return to his home in Flint, Michigan, while awaiting his first-degree murder trial, would endanger her, as well as many others. She said that her father, over the years, has told the family countless stories about how he regularly physically abused Joan Bernal before her disappearance. "Almost like a badge of honor for the man," Sarita testified.

"For the safety of me and my family and the community, I ask that my father remains detained pending trial."

Will County prosecutors furnished the names and statements from approximately a dozen other people, dating back to the 1970s, who were all violently attacked or harmed by Gilbert Bernal over the years, including several other ex-wives of his.

"No one ever leaves me," Bernal supposedly told one of his domestic violence victims, according to the prosecution.

Prosecutors noted that since December 1988, no other human being has ever seen or heard from Joan Bernal. There has been no activity on her Social Security card. The FBI confirmed she was not placed into the Witness Protection Program. No activity to her bank accounts or credit cards.

"He controlled all the money," prosecutors suggested, referring to Gilbert Bernal. "It was clear, her life met a violent end."

Prosecutors reminded Judge Smigielski, "you heard years and years and years of abuse before and after Joan. It doesn't matter who it is. These people have a fear of this defendant."

The Will County State's Attorney's Office prosecutors told Judge Smigielski that they fear Bernal will flee and never return to the Joliet courthouse if the judge lets him out under pretrial release. "He is not 25 years old. He's 82. He's 82, and he's looking at a 20-year minimum sentence to be served at 50 percent. If he gets the minimum, he gets out at 92. If he lasts that long."

The prosecutor noted that Bernal continues to have a U.S. passport and that through information obtained from ICE, Bernal has crossed over into Mexico at least 31 times since 2017. Bernal's home in Flint, Michigan is four hours away from Joliet, and Bernal also has family ties only 20 miles from the Mexico border, in Edinburg, Texas.

"Judge, he has no ties here," the prosecutor emphasized.

Will County Judge Art Smigielski later announced he will make his decision next Tuesday.