Updated: Murder trial begins for Joliet man charged with 2016 slaying

A judge will decide whether one of two brothers is guilty of murdering a U.S. Army veteran in Joliet Township after the case has been pending for almost seven years.

On Wednesday, Blaique Morgan, 26, of Joliet, waived his right to a jury trial and has asked Judge Vincent Cornelius to decide his fate in a case where’s charged with the first-degree murder of U.S. Army veteran Robert Bielec, 62, on Jan. 7, 2016.

The murder trial for Amari Morgan, 24, Blaique Morgan’s brother and co-defendant, is slated for March 13, following a Feb. 28 hearing on whether evidence should be suppressed in Amari Morgan’s case.

Blaique Morgan was 19 and his brother 17 at the time of the Bielec’s death.

In opening statements, Will County Assistant State’s Attorney Alyson Wozniak said Bielec’s roommate, Kristie Maltais, had heard a loud thud while at his residence at Houston Avenue around 10:30 p.m. on Jan. 7, 2016, and saw Bielec lying in the driveway suffering from massive head trauma.

Prosecutors had played a 911 recording of Maltais’ call, where she said she saw Bielec’s body on the driveway with a pool of blood by his head. Maltais was crying when she told the dispatcher, “Oh God, there is blood everywhere.”

Wozniak said there were Post-it notes at the scene that said, “You reap what you sow.”

Wozniak said there was an earlier incident where the Morgan brothers’ house, which is next to Bielec’s residence, had been shot at and the brothers believed Bielec was responsible.

Wozniak said the two men decided to confront Bielec at his residence. During the confrontation, she said the brothers – both over six feet in height – had ambushed the much shorter Bielec in his driveway.

“They beat him to death with a baseball bat,” Wozniak said.

Shenonda Tisdale, one of Blaique Morgan’s attorneys, contends there is no evidence to show that her client personally committed the murder or conspired with his brother to kill Bielec.

Tisdale said the case is based on a theory of accountability, which means the state is holding Blaique Morgan accountable for the actions of another. She said prosecutors will not be able to prove her client guilty under that theory or of murder beyond a reasonable doubt.

During a motion hearing earlier this year in Amari Morgan’s case, Will County Deputy Chief Dan Jungles said investigators learned from Blaique Morgan’s girlfriend that he told her Amari Morgan killed Bielec by striking him with a baseball bat several times.

Before Wednesday’s trial, Tisdale had motioned to keep a new statement from the girlfriend out of trial where she claimed Blaique Morgan confessed to killing Bielec himself.

Cornelius decided not to keep it out as he determined prosecutors had not made an unnecessarily late disclosure and that a judge or jury could weigh the credibility of that evidence.

During the brothers’ time in jail, they were allowed in 2017 to attend the funeral of their parents, Patrick Morgan, 49, and Angel Morgan, 42, who died in an apparent murder-suicide in their Joliet home that was investigated by the Joliet Police Department.