Jury finds Watson guilty in Harrah’s Joliet murder

A jury on Friday found Robert Watson guilty of first-degree murder in the 2019 stabbing of a Wisconsin visitor to the Harrah’s Joliet Hotel and Casino.

The jury’s finding was guilty but mentally ill, which prosecutors said will have an effect on his treatment in the prison system but not on his sentence.

The fiancée of Emanuel “Sam” Burgarino, who was 76 when he was killed, was in tears as she talked about him after the verdict.

“Sam was everything to me,” Denise Dixon said. “He was just a wonderful person. He didn’t deserve to leave the world like that.”

Dixon was at Harrah’s but not with Burgarino at the time that he was attacked.

Burgarino was stabbed 26 times in the attack in a hallway at the Harrah’s hotel, prosecutors said.

A sentencing hearing for Watson, 29, was set for July 31.

Watson was homeless at the time of the murder, and his attorneys argued that he suffered from schizophrenia.

He closed his eyes as the sentence was read in court Friday morning.

The jury deliberated for about eight hours Thursday and another two hours Friday before reaching a verdict.

Will County Circuit Judge Dave Carlson commended the jury for the detailed attention it gave to the case before delivering its verdict.

Carlson will determine Watson’s sentence after the sentencing hearing.

The finding of guilty but mentally ill was among the options for the jury, which also could have given a straight guilty verdict or found Watson not guilty by reason of insanity.

Will County Assistant State’s Attorney Tom Slazyk said the finding of guilty but mentally ill does not have a direct effect on Watson’s sentence. But it will matter in determining Watson’s placement in the prison system and the availability of psychological treatment, he said.

“It doesn’t diminish his length of sentence at all,” Slazyk said.

Defense attorneys are likely to point to Watson’s mental condition as a factor in the sentencing, however.

In closing arguments, Watson’s attorney Shenonda Tisdale told the jury that he acted on delusions and had showed symptoms of schizophrenia.

Watson faces a sentence of anywhere between 20 and 100 years in prison, according to a statement from the Will County State’s Attorney’s Office after the verdict.

Prosecutors noted that Joliet police followed a trail of blood that included the knife, articles of clothing and latex gloves worn by Watson in the attack before arresting him the day after the murder, which occurred March 24, 2019. He was arrested at the Joliet Public Library Ottawa Street Branch, which is located a couple of blocks away from Harrah’s.

The attack occurred in a hallway on the fifth floor of the downtown hotel. Security video showed Watson taking latex gloves from a hotel cart before the knifing. Prosecutors said Burgarino was pepper-sprayed before he was stabbed.

Dixon said his violent death has had a lasting and painful impact on those who were close to Burgarino.

“We all miss him so much,” she said.