After Joliet's Worst Mass Murder In Decades, Jury 'Will Not Have Problem Finding Reasonable Doubt': Lawyer

JOLIET, IL — On the same cold and snowy late January Sunday afternoon that 23-year-old Romeo Nance killed his entire family at their homes on Joliet's West Acres Road, prosecutors say his childhood friend since second grade, Jon Hansen, went for a ride with Nance and shot two people he mistook for gang members. One of the victims shot by Hansen died, prosecutors argued during the first day of Hansen's first-degree murder trial.

On Tuesday morning, the Will County State's Attorney's Office team of prosecutors argued that the Jan. 21, 2024, mass murder spree carried out at two different West Acres homes and two subsequent shootings on Joliet's southeast side were two separate events. The last two shootings were orchestrated by Hansen, who woke up that Sunday morning texting Nance and other friends, advising that Hansen wanted to go and shoot up some Vice Lords, prosecutor Tricia McKenna asserted.

She informed the newly seated Will County jury that Hansen considered himself a member of the Milwaukee Kings street gang and the Vice Lords were his arch enemies.

McKenna handled the prosecution's opening statements. On Jan. 21, 2024, Hansen was on a mission, she told the jury. She said there may be some dispute as far as whether Hansen was a full-fledged Milwaukee Kings gang member, "but that's ... what he aspired to be," McKenna revealed. She said he texted various people, including Nance, his boyhood pal, about desiring to obtain his "tattoos under his eyes. He wanted to spin the Vice Lords today. This is all by 10 o'clock that morning."

McKenna said that Hansen's texts informed Nance that Nance would be the driver and that Hansen already had his ski mask — Hansen just needed to obtain a set of gloves first, which he would later get.

"Jon is talking about gang shootings and he wants to commit them. It's Jon Hansen sending out texts to everyone, and (meanwhile) Romeo is busy. Romeo is killing his entire family after getting into an argument with them," McKenna told the jury.

McKenna assured the jury that based on the defense team's strategy, "you are going to hear a lot about Romeo Nance."

Hansen is being represented by the downtown Joliet law firm of Tomczak Law Group. Three of the firm's top lawyers sat at his defense table for Tuesday's trial.

McKenna told the jury that "Romeo Nance is evil. He is a killer," but "Romeo Nance ended up killing himself. He is the person Jon selected to go kill the Vice Lords that day."

After Nance finished his mass murder crime spree on West Acres Road, he agreed to pick up Hansen and Hansen's pregnant girlfriend. They drove to the Shorewood 7-Eleven, where Hansen obtained his set of gloves, the prosecutor explained.

After visiting Calderon's Liquors on Joliet's Collins Street, Nance drove Hansen around Joliet's southeast side, driving through neighborhoods known to have a Vice Lords presence. Around 4:15 p.m., they spotted Mario Guerrero unloading groceries near the edge of his driveway on Davis Street, and because he was wearing red and black clothing, Hansen mistook him for a Vice Lords gang member and shot him in the leg, McKenna argued. Guerrero survived.

Then, at 4:27 p.m. Sunday, the Will County Sheriff's Office said it received a 911 call regarding a shooting at the Pheasant Run Apartments along Route 53 in unincorporated Joliet Township. Toyosi Bakare, 28, who came to Joliet three years earlier from Nigeria, suffered one fatal gunshot to his head, near his left eye.

McKenna told the jury that Bakare worked in information technology and was not a gang member. But because he was outside taking his garbage to the apartment building Dumpster and wearing red and black pajamas, Hansen mistook him for a Vice Lord, and "that car pulls up on him. One shot to his head and the car drives away," she remarked.

From there, Nance dropped off Hansen and his girlfriend, then Hansen tossed the gun used in the shootings into the shallow DuPage River next to the 7-Eleven.

"Romeo Nance kept driving. He shoots himself and a second gun was recovered," McKenna explained, referring to the police dragnet in Texas where Nance took his own life rather than be captured alive.

As for Hansen's interview with police detectives, "he admits being in the car, but blames everything on Romeo," McKenna alerted the jury. "Says Romeo was the passenger and he was scared of Romeo."

McKenna wanted the jury to know that Hansen is not standing trial on first-degree murder charges this month because the state needed to blame somebody.

Rather, she said that Joliet area police detectives kept investigating, even after Nance's suicide, and "they kept working until they had the truth."

She argued that Hansen was responsible for both east side shootings, the non-fatal shooting of Mario Guerrero and the gunshot homicide of Bakare, the Nigerian immigrant.

Defense attorney Patti Kalkanis handled the opening statements for Tomczak Law Group. She reminded the jury, "Jon is presumed innocent and I hope that sits deeply with all of you.

"He is a survivor. That's why he's here today."

Kalkanis argued that in the eyes of the government, given that Nance took his own life after nine people were shot in Joliet, including eight fatally, "someone has to go down for this, so they chose Jon."

She insisted that all of the murders were orchestrated by Nance, who used an automatic rifle to gun down his uncle, his mother, his aunt, three sisters and finally his bed-ridden older brother, who was disabled and lying in his hospital bed.

She said that Nance beat his mother so badly after executing her with the rifle that her face was unrecognizable. Nance brought his 3-year-old son Avery into the West Acre homes and the little boy saw everything, exclaiming, "Daddy, why? Daddy, why?"

"His son was spared," Kalkanis told the jury.

All the while, Nance's 21-year-old girlfriend, Kyleigh Cleveland, remained in her car driving up and down the street, never calling 911 after the deadly shootings happened, Kalkanis reminded the jury.

"At this point, the murder spree did not stop," Kalkanis pointed out.

She acknowledged that Nance picked up her client. "Jon and Romeo, they were friends."

'Jon is a keyboard warrior'

Kalkanis suggested that Hansen and his girlfriend had no idea when they got into Nance's car that he had already executed seven family members. As for Hansen's barrage of text messages earlier that same morning talking about wanting to harm and shoot up the Vice Lords, Kalkanis had this to say:

"Jon is a keyboard warrior. He wants to act like a tough guy ... this was Jon talking like a big guy when Jon doesn't have the guts to do it. He is not capable of taking anybody's life away. The mindset of Jon did not match the mindset of Romeo. Jon had no idea Romeo just executed seven people when Jon and (his girlfriend) got in the car."

Kalkanis said the prosecution is trying to make its case about the shootings being motivated by gang activity, but "these were random people. The victims are non-gang members and not part of any gangs ... Jon was cooperative with detectives because he truly had nothing to hide."

Kalkanis said that Nance "was a homicidal, suicidal, crazed maniac" who was later singing songs inside his car, with Hansen and Hansen's pregnant girlfriend present, "about we're all going to die today. Romeo shoots his eighth victim (on Davis Street). At Pheasant Run, he sees a man taking out his garbage. There, Romeo shoots and executes his ninth victim, again, a random person, not in a gang, just a completely random person. Jon had a goal, and it was to get home unharmed ... I submit to you that you will not have a problem finding reasonable doubt as to what happened in that car that day."

Hansen's jury trial is taking place in Courtroom 502 on the fifth floor, in front of Will County Judge Jessica Colon-Sayre. The Will County State's Attorney's Office has Alexandra Molesky, Tricia McKenna, Donna Webdell and Mark Shlifka prosecuting the case.

Hansen's defense team is being represented by attorneys Jeff Tomczak, Anna Rose Bertani and Kalkanis. The jury trial is expected to last three to four weeks.

Hansen is charged with three counts of first-degree murder for Bakare's death, one count of attempted murder for the shooting of Guerrero and one count of aggravated battery/discharge of a firearm.

Related Joliet Patch coverage:

• Shorewood Gang Member Wanted To Fight Vice Lords: Prosecutors
• 'Romeo Nance's Reign Of Terror' In Joliet Is Over: Sheriff's Office
• Romeo Nance Was Seen Running With A Rifle: Neighborhood Source