Witness changes story in 2016 Joliet Township homicide case

A woman testified on Friday that her ex-boyfriend told her that he killed a 62-year-old man in Joliet Township, an allegation that she did not say to detectives almost seven years ago.

Bianca Rodriguez, 25, the ex-girlfriend of Blaique Morgan, 26, testified Friday in a bench trial where Judge Vincent Cornelius will determine whether Morgan is guilty of the 2016 murder of Robert Bielec.

Morgan and his brother, Amari Morgan, 24, have been charged with killing Bielec, who was their next door neighbor in the 1700 block of Houston Avenue.

Rodriguez appeared reluctant to identify Blaique Morgan in court during the third day of his trial. When asked by a prosecutor to identify him, Rodriguez pointed at him without looking at him. She eventually did look at him to identify him by the clothes he was wearing.

Rodriguez said she received a call from her former boyfriend to pick up him up on the night of the incident on Jan. 7, 2016. She said she picked up Blaique Morgan and his brother.

At one point, Rodriguez said they were at her house, where Blaique Morgan had tossed away two pairs of shoes in a garbage can.

She was asked by Will County Assistant State’s Attorney Alyson Wozniak what Blaique Morgan said to her during that night.

“That he had killed his neighbor,” Rodriguez said, referring to Bielec.

Blaique Morgan’s attorney, Shenonda Tisdale, asked Rodriguez during cross examination whether she said to detectives Jan. 8, 2016, that Blaique Morgan told her that Amari Morgan swung the bat and struck Bielec.

“I don’t recall,” Rodriguez said.

When asked by Tisdale whether she told detectives at the time that Blaique Morgan admitted to killing Bielec, Rodriguez again said, “I don’t recall.”

Rodriguez admitted she did tell an investigator with the Will County Public Defender’s Office earlier this month that her first statement to detectives in 2016 was the most accurate.

Tisdale played a portion of Rodriguez’ interview with detectives. In the video, Rodriguez said Blaique Morgan told her Amari Morgan had swung the bat.

Rodriguez admitted she didn’t tell detectives at the time that Blaique Morgan swung the bat and struck Bielec.

During Friday’s bench trial, Cornelius heard testimony from forensic scientist Sarah Owen, regarding the DNA analysis of two pairs of shoes that had been left inside of a garbage can at Rodriguez’s residence and recovered by police.

One pair were black Nike shoes and another were purple Adidas shoes.

Owen said the DNA profile on stains found on the shoes matched Bielec’s blood. She said both shoes were swabbed and a sample from the Nike shoes matched the DNA profile of Blaique Morgan while the sample from the Adidas shoes matched Amari Morgan’s DNA profile.