'I Don't Recall,' Naperville Stabbing Survivor Says At Teacher Slay Trial

Caption: Willie Hayes as he appeared in 2011 on the North Central College football team. Hayes was wounded in the alleged knife attack at Frankie’s Blue Room where Naperville teacher Shaun Wild was stabbed to death in February 2012.

Security video from Frankie’s Blue Room took center stage Wednesday at the trial of a Naperville man accused of killing a schoolteacher and wounding two other men in a bar fight in February 2012.

Daniel Olaska, 30, a former aviation manager, has been charged with the first-degree murder of Shaun Wild, a 24-year-old elementary school teacher in Naperville.

He also faces two counts of attempted murder in the wounding of Wild’s friend, football player Willie Hayes, and bouncer Rafael Castenda.

Prosecutors continued to call witnesses to the stand who had encountered Olaska in the late evening and early morning hours of Feb. 3 and Feb. 4, 2012 at Frankie’s Blue Room in downtown Naperville.

McKala Cruse recalled her conversation with John Reynolds, the man who danced with Sarah Schwen, the woman prosecutors said Olaska took a liking to and ultimately rejected him on the dance floor.

Reynolds testified the day before how he left the dance floor after Olaska cut in on his dance with Schwen and brought her a beer because he thought they were together.

Later, when he went up to apologize to Olaska for “dancing with your girlfriend,” he claimed Olaska showed him the knife that was later identified as the murder weapon.

After the alleged threat was made, Reynolds confided in Cruse at the bar, a woman he had met for the first time that evening at a mutual friend’s birthday party.

“[Reynolds] told me that ‘someone just threatened to stab me,’” Cruse testified. “I was like, ‘holy, s---, why, what’s going on with that.’”

Olaska’s attorney, Jeffrey Kendall, asked Cruse why she waited until now to tell her story.

“You never told [Naperville police] at all about your conversation with John Reynolds, about the defendant threatening him,” Kendall asked. “You didn’t think that was important?”

Cruse explained that she was in shock when police called her. “I didn’t put 2 and 2 together or connect it to the stabbing,” she said. “I thought it was kind of an empty threat.”

Cruse also said during cross-examination that Reynolds never mentioned Olaska pulling a knife, only that he had threatened him.

Gina Gargaro, a 2008 North Central College graduate, told the court how she and a friend made plans to go to Frankie’s Blue Room on Feb. 3, 2012.

After they arrived at the bar, the women ran into two friends who were on the North Central College football team.

Find herself on security video, Gargaro and Olaska are seen pointing at each other. Gargaro testified that Olaska approached her at the bar swearing and calling her derogatory names. She had never met him prior to that evening.

“I told him to leave me alone and to get away from me,” Gargaro said. “I told him to go sit down.”

Willie Hayes, the North Central College football player who was sitting across the booth from Olaska at Frankie’s Blue Room, from was the last witness to take the stand on Wednesday. Olaska allegedly stabbed Hayes in the chest after he remarked how Olaska was “drinking beer from a wine glass.” The two exchanged introductions.

Hayes could not recall making the “beer in a wine glass” remark or many other details from February 2012. While sitting in the booth with Olaska, Hayes said he felt “uncomfortable and wanted to remove myself from the situation.”

“I reached over to shake the defendant’s hand,” Hayes said. “I felt like I was punched. I remember putting my hand on my left chest and felt like I couldn’t breathe. I looked at my hand and it was covered with blood.”

Hayes, now a special education teacher at Lemont High School, admitted that he was intoxicated during his encounter with Olaska.

Defense attorney Ernie DiBenedetto spent much of his cross-examination of Hayes playing security video of the moments leading up to what he has described as Olaska’s act of self-defense.

“Isn’t it true that while you were on the dance floor an unknown friend came up and said Mr. Olaska thought your shirt was too tight,” DiBenedetto asked. “Did someone bring you to the booth?”

“I don’t recall,” Hayes said.

DiBenedetto played video that appeared to show Olaska talking to Wild and other football players standing near the booth asking them to come “settle Hayes down,” the attorney said.

“Were you threatening the defendant,” DiBenedetto asked.

“I don’t recall what I was saying,” Hayes said. “I would never threaten anyone, I’m not that kind of person.”

The trial is expected to continue into the next week.

Also on Patch:

Naperville Bar Stabbing Triggered By Rejection On Dance Floor, Prosecutor Says

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Accused Murderer to Claim Self-Defense in Naperville Bar Stabbing