Victim's Blood In Harrah's Hallway Leaves Juror In Tears

JOLIET, IL — It was Sunday night, March 24, 2019, and Glen Hill walked into the Harrah's Casino elevator to return to his fifth floor hotel room only to have a face to face encounter with a strange man who followed him into the elevator — first-degree murder defendant Robert Watson.

"It was just an uncomfortable feeling I had. He didn't push any buttons and he didn't ask me to push a button," testified Hill, a Palos Heights marketing professional for an entertainment company, during the first day of Watson's Joliet murder trial in the horrific fatal stabbing of 76-year-old Harrah's Casino patron Sam Burgarino of Wisconsin.

When the elevator door opened on the hotel's fifth floor, Hill let Watson walk down one of the hallways. Hill did not see what direction Watson went. Hill then got back into the elevator, rode it back down to one. Then, he got back inside and went back to floor five.

Not seeing Watson lurking around anymore, Hill used his key card to enter his fifth floor hotel room. He stayed in the room about five minutes.

"Did anything get your attention?" inquired Will County Assistant State's Attorney Tom Slazyk.

"I heard a tussle and some voices in the hallway, and it seemed like something was going on, so I opened my door," Hill told the jury.

"I saw the defendant standing over the victim making a striking motion. I said, 'what the f*** are you doing? Get the f*** out of here!' He stood up and looked at me, made eye contact and ran."

"About how long did you look at his face?" Slazyk asked his witness.

"About five seconds," Hill testified. "He was surprised, yeah, he was startled. He looked surprised. He didn't stay there. He turned around and ran."

For privacy reasons, Harrah's does not have video surveillance cameras positioned in the hallways of hotel rooms, a Harrah's employee testified Wednesday morning.

In the afternoon, prosecutors showed the jury several videos and still images of Watson lurking around Harrah's Casino property before and after the murder. He had been trespassing on the casino property that entire weekend.

One surveillance video captured Watson about 12 hours before the murder sneaking down a concrete stairwell, where he found a cart of plastic gloves. He stole a pair of gloves and then left — not drawing any attention or suspicion from Harrah's security guards.

The jury also saw Harrah's security video of Watson running down a stairwell after the stabbing. Another video showed Watson running outside the casino along North Joliet Street before Joliet police cars and the Joliet Fire Department ambulance arrived to attend to the stabbing victim.

On the witness stand, Hill described what he saw in the hotel hallway — Watson as the aggressor and Burgarino in a struggle for survival.

"It appeared to be a stabbing motion," Hill testified. "But it certainly appeared to be a punching motion downward.

"I moved, and grabbed his shoulder and asked if he was OK. He wasn't. Other people came out of rooms to see what was going on. I yelled for them to call police or 911."

Slazyk and fellow Will County prosecutor Will Lite showed the jury a few of the hallway photos of the blood spatter on the white walls of the casino's hotel. One contained a large pool of Burgarino's blood. That particular trial exhibit prompted Will County Judge Dave Carlson's bailiff to visit the prosecutor's table.

"One of the jurors needs a tissue," the bailiff told Lite and Slazyk.

The woman on the jury cried several minutes after seeing the homicide victim's pool of blood displayed on the large video screen in Carlson's courtroom.

Hill testified that after confronting Watson in the hallway, "he went down the hall and disappeared. I imagine it was the stairwell."

Hill was asked how certain he was that Watson, now 29 years old, was the culprit in the deadly stabbing of the senior citizen from Wisconsin.

"That is absolutely the person," Hill told the jury.

Denise Dixon, the girlfriend of nine years of Burgarino was the most emotional witness to testify Wednesday.

Burgarino came from Hales Corners, a small village in Milwaukee County.

Slazyk often paused for several seconds after asking Dixon questions as she broke down and cried when recalling the love of her life, who was taken from her more than four years ago.

"He was my fiancée, and my best friend," she told the jury, her voice quivering.

Both Wisconsin residents, Dixon met Burgarino in 2010.

He worked as well driller and owned a small company.

"He was semi-retired," she testified. "And he was in good shape, and before he died ... he did a lot of different things to keep himself busy."

Burgarino wound up owning a sports bar in Wisconsin. That's how they met.

"I actually met him at his bar," Dixon testified, saying she met him through a friend. "I wasn't a huge bar person, but Sam was a wonderful person. It was the best decision I ever made."

Burgarino and Dixon decided to spend a three-day weekend in Joliet at the Harrah's Casino, from March 22 to 24, 2019.

"Sam was a big craps player, so we got a weekend at Harrah's," Dixon told the jury. "That weekend, Sam liked to pay for everything in cash. He had brought a couple thousand dollars, but usually, Sam was a very conservative player."

For instance, Burgarino was thrilled when he won $50 playing casino games.

On his last day alive, he had $300 to $400 in his pocket, and the rest of his money was kept in their hotel room.

"We stayed at the hotel, and we were assigned a room on the fifth floor," Dixon testified.

On Sunday evening, March 24, 2019, the Wisconsin couple dined at The Reserve, which is the steakhouse at Harrah's Casino.

"It was a very nice restaurant," Dixon testified. She didn't finish her meal, so they returned to their room and put her leftovers into the mini-refrigerator.

"Sam wanted to play craps, and I wanted to play slots, so we went down to the casino," Dixon testified.

At one point, Burgarino told her he was going back to their room because "he had a job he was supposed to do. He just had to call and check on a couple things," Dixon testified. "He said, 'I'll go get us a drink from the room.'"

Slazyk asked his witness if her boyfriend ever returned to the casino floor.

"No, he never returned," she told the jury.

She estimated he left the casino area around 9:25 p.m. or 9:30 p.m.

"I waited 10, 15 minutes," Dixon recalled. "I became a little worried."

Then, she figured, maybe he went to the bathroom or went to watch TV.

"I called him probably about three times, and he didn't answer. I am sure."

Worried, Dixon left the casino and encountered an employee in the hotel lobby.

"A Harrah's employee kind of stopped me. He said, 'Excuse me, ma'am, where are you going?' He said, 'What floor?' I'm in room 520," Dixon recalled saying. "I've been waiting for my friend. At that point, when I mentioned Sam's name, they said, there had been an incident and referred me over to a police officer."

Related Joliet Patch coverage:

Harrah's Murder Trial Underway: Robert Watson Disagrees He's Insane