Neighbor Snaps Photos Of Joliet Murder As It Happens: Testimony

JOLIET, IL — Mary Key has lived on Joliet's Fox Street, near Highland Park, for the past 47 years, and after she went to bed around 9 p.m. on Oct. 27. 2018, she was awoken by loud noises coming from outside her window.

"I heard someone talking outside," Key testified Tuesday afternoon in the first-degree murder trial for Anthony Francimore of Joliet. "I got up. I'm a very light sleeper."

Key approached her picture window and looked outside. "It was dark that evening," she testified. "I had the lights off and Highland Park has a great big light."

Suddenly, Key noticed one of her neighbors talking on his phone, back behind her house. She described her neighbor as being "late teens or early 20s. And I continue to watch because I'm nosy, and I'm afraid that someone is going to break into our house, to be truthful."

As she watched out her window, Key saw a car approach. This was the car used by Francimore's co-defendant, Eli Watson, and was owned by Watson's girlfriend, according to prosecutors.

She described the car "as dark with tinted windows. She saw it drive north toward the Belmont baseball fields.

"I seen the neighbor in my backyard," Key testified. "It looked like he went to the back window."

Francimore, Watson and three other people were inside the car that went to Joliet's Ridgewood Area to meet with Nathan Ballard and his brother. The Ballard brothers believed Francimore was going to sell them crack cocaine, according to testimony.

Key used her iPhone to take photos of the incident after she noticed Nathan Ballard's brother walking to the front of the car to take pictures of the front license plates.

"Right after, I seen sparks and noises that sounded like firecrackers, three or four, and I went down," Key testified. "I was scared I was going to get shot. It sounded like gunfire."

It was gunfire.

Nathan Ballard suffered one gunshot wound to his chest. Key saw her neighbor fall to the ground as the getaway car sped away from Fox Street.

"Yes, I took pictures when the brother ... was shot, and pictures after the shooting, to try to get license plates," Key testified. "I threw on my robe and raced down the stairs."

Key told the jury she was a registered nurse, "so I tried to help the guy ... but police were there by then and said, 'Do not touch him.'"

Key testified the Will County Sheriff's police arrived to the shooting "right away."

When prosecutors asked Key if she witnessed the fatal shooting of Nathan Ballard, 20, she answered yes.

"I seen it," Key testified. "I seen the sparks. I seen the boy go down in the street. It looked like he was face down."

During cross-examination, Will County Public Defender Eric Berg reminded Key that five years have passed since the deadly shooting.

Given the length of time, Berg asked if Key's "memory is as good as it was five years ago?"

It's hard to get rid of it," Key answered without hesitation.

Moments later, Key clarified, "I could not see a firearm" as she looked out her picture window and saw the incident near the edge of her Joliet property line.

As for her reason for going to the window and photographing the incident, "I was concerned they were going to rob my husband's truck," Key testified.

Key told the jury that her and her husband's property had been the subject of a few break-ins in the past.