'Reap What You Sow' Sticky Notes Prove Premeditated Murder: Attorney

JOLIET, IL — After waiting almost seven years for his trial to occur, Joliet first-degree murder defendant Blaique Morgan informed Will County Judge Vince Cornelius he would not testify in his own defense for the Jan. 7, 2016 brutal beating death of Morgan's next door neighbor, 62-year-old Bob Bielec.

On Monday afternoon, Will County Public Defenders Gabriel Guzman and Shenonda Tisdale informed the bench trial judge that they were not calling any witnesses as part of the defense's case.

During closing arguments, Assistant State's Attorney Mike Fitzgerald reminded Judge Cornelius that there were several sticky notes — identical to ones from Blaique Morgan's own bedroom — scattered all over the yard declaring, "Reap What You Sow."

When the two Will County Sheriff's detectives asked Morgan whether the sticky notes were placed around the yards along Houston Avenue in Preston Heights before or after his neighbor's violent death, Morgan told detectives it had to be prior to his confrontation with Bielec.

On Courtroom 404's PowerPoint screen, Fitzgerald replayed several of last week's gruesome crime scene photos showing Bielec's bloody body wedged between his open car door and the side of his house.

According to Fitzgerald, Bielec's car keys were in his hand when his skull was smashed from a baseball bat that Blaique Morgan told sheriff's detectives his brother Amari used to strike Bielec after Blaique had grabbed Bielec in the older man's driveway late at night.

The Morgan brothers were athletic teenagers, 6-foot 2 and 6-foot-4, respectively, both 160 lbs, while their homicide victim was 62, 5-foot-6 and 147 lbs, Fitzgerald stressed.

"It's just a very contained crime scene," Fitzgerald said, emphasizing this was an ambush killing and the Morgan brothers were not defending themselves in any practical way.

With the sticky notes already in the yard and the victim being intimidated, "he's down on the ground with his head smashed with a baseball bat," Fitzgerald argued. "Then it gets out of hand real quick ... Amari struck his head."

When Bielec fell to the ground immobilized, Blaique Morgan did nothing to help the battered and beaten victim, never once calling the police or 911 for help, Fitzgerald said.

Blaique Morgan maintained he and his brother attacked Bielec in self-defense, believing he had a gun inside his coat.

"He could not get to the gun he never had," Fitzgerald reminded Judge Cornelius. "Blaique Morgan watched his brother beat Mr. Bielec ... his shoes have blood on them."

Amari ran off with the baseball bat, which was never found, and the Morgan brothers were later seen "throwing out trash" together at a Dumpster belonging to one of their friends, Fitzgerald noted.

A day later, the brothers' bloody Nike and Adidas shoes were found inside the garbage cans of Bianca Rodriguez at her house on Joliet's near west side.

She was Blaique Morgan's long-time on-again, off-again girlfriend at the time of the murder. Last week, she testified for the prosecution.

"They did not report this to the police. The State believes that under an accountability theory" Blaique Morgan should be convicted of first-degree murder," Fitzgerald remarked.

During the defense's closing arguments, Will County Public Defender Gabriel Guzman told Judge Cornelius the prosecutors failed to prove their case against his client.

Guzman insisted that Blaique Morgan's ex-girlfriend lied on the witness stand when she claimed he told her "he killed Bob" after the homicide occurred.

Rodriguez was given use immunity from the prosecutors last month in exchange for her truthful trial testimony.

"Bianca says he told her he killed Bob," Guzman repeated. "My opinion, the state's case was very weak. We're not saying the state did anything wrong. Judge, I'm asking you to give it zero weight. Why give her immunity? I'm going to make it juicier for the state."

Guzman suggested that Bielec's death was caused solely by Amari Morgan, whose own first-degree murder case has yet to go to trial.

Amari Morgan is now 24. He was 17 at the time of the slaying.

Guzman claimed that Bielec told the brothers that their sister was going to perform oral sex on him, and that's when the altercation occurred.

As far as Blaique Morgan's initial statement to detectives, claiming he alone attacked his neighbor, using a brass pipe, "my client is a liar, that doesn't make him a murderer," Guzman told the judge.

With the trial over, Cornelius set Friday for a status hearing. It's possible, but not a guarantee, that the judge will render his verdicts at that time.