{"id":258449,"date":"2023-02-07T17:52:49","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T23:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=258449"},"modified":"2023-02-08T13:56:24","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T19:56:24","slug":"harrahs-joliet-alleged-stranger-killer-to-plead-insanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-alleged-stranger-killer-to-plead-insanity\/","title":{"rendered":"Harrah’s Joliet Alleged Stranger-Killer to Plead Insanity"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man accused of the brutal murder of a stranger<\/a> in a hallway of Harrah\u2019s Casino Joliet intends to plead insanity, his lawyer has told a judge in Will County, Ill.<\/p>\n

\"Harrah\u2019s
Robert Watson, seen in a mugshot above, was deemed fit to stand trial in 2020, but his lawyers argue he was suffering from schizophrenia at the time of the attack (Image: Patch.com<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Robert Watson was arrested on March 25, 2019, at the Joliet Public Library, the day after he is alleged to have stabbed to death 76-year-old Emanuel \u201cSam\u201d Burgarino, a guest at the hotel.<\/p>\n

Burgarino was knifed 26 times and robbed in a shocking attack.<\/p>\n

At the time of his arrest, Watson was a transient with a violent history. His lawyers contend their client suffers from schizophrenia and was mentally incompetent at the time of the killing.<\/p>\n

Trial Upcoming<\/h2>\n

The trial was scheduled to begin this week, but Will County Judge Dave Carlson granted a request by Watson\u2019s lawyer, Shenonda Tisdale, to bump the trial to May 1, Patch.com<\/em> reports. That\u2019s because more time is needed for the defense to prepare for an insanity defense trial.<\/p>\n

Watson was deemed fit<\/a> to stand trial by a Will County jury in August 2020. That’s when Dr. Anna Stapleton testified for the prosecution that Watson appeared to be faking his mental illness.<\/p>\n

Duty of Care<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Burgarino, from Hales Corners, Wis., was visiting the casino with his fianc\u00e9e. His alleged attacker was not a hotel guest, nor did he have a key or an assigned room.<\/p>\n

Instead, he \u201csuspiciously lurked and stalked patrons on Harrah\u2019s property for hours\u2014in plain view of the hotel staff\u2014without checking in, gambling, or buying anything.\u201d That\u2019s according to a civil negligence lawsuit filed against the casino owner, Caesars Entertainment, by Burgarino\u2019s fianc\u00e9e, Denise Dixon.<\/p>\n

Dixon argues in her suit that Harrah\u2019s staff had a duty of care to protect their guests from Watson.<\/p>\n

He was repeatedly caught on security cameras loitering around the venue. That’s while staff did nothing to investigate his presence or prevent the attack on Burgarino, Dixon claims.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At his 2020 competency hearing, jurors heard that Watson had lived in Wisconsin, Arizona, Hawaii, Florida, and Minnesota, according to Patch.com<\/em>. Recently, he had stayed with his mother and then his grandmother. But both kicked him out. Jurors heard that on one occasion, he accused his mother of worshipping the devil.<\/p>\n

In 2013, in Florida, police were called to see Watson standing naked on a roof, \u201cwanting to kill himself.\u201d He later told officers he had taken drugs and was hearing voices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A man accused of the brutal murder of a stranger in a hallway of Harrah\u2019s Casino Joliet intends to plead insanity, his lawyer has told a judge in Will County, Ill. Robert Watson was arrested on March 25, 2019, at the Joliet Public Library, the day after he is alleged to have stabbed to death […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":203921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,60,18],"tags":[84632,82002,84931],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHarrah's Joliet Alleged Stranger-Killer to Plead Insanity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Robert Watson, accused of the frenzied murder of senior citizen Emanuel Burgarino at Harrahs Joliet, Illinois, will plead insanity.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-alleged-stranger-killer-to-plead-insanity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Harrah's Joliet Alleged Stranger-Killer to Plead Insanity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Robert Watson, accused of the frenzied murder of senior citizen Emanuel Burgarino at Harrahs Joliet, Illinois, will plead insanity.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-alleged-stranger-killer-to-plead-insanity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-07T23:52:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-08T19:56:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/watson-e1675885788724.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"831\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-alleged-stranger-killer-to-plead-insanity\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-alleged-stranger-killer-to-plead-insanity\/\",\"name\":\"Harrah's Joliet Alleged Stranger-Killer to Plead Insanity\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-alleged-stranger-killer-to-plead-insanity\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-alleged-stranger-killer-to-plead-insanity\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/watson-e1675885788724.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-07T23:52:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-08T19:56:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Robert Watson, accused of the frenzied murder of senior citizen Emanuel Burgarino at Harrahs Joliet, Illinois, will plead insanity.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-alleged-stranger-killer-to-plead-insanity\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-alleged-stranger-killer-to-plead-insanity\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/harrahs-joliet-alleged-stranger-killer-to-plead-insanity\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/watson-e1675885788724.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/watson-e1675885788724.jpg\",\"width\":831,\"height\":675,\"caption\":\"Lawyers for Robert Watson, above, argued their client was not guilty by reason of insanity in the murder of Sam Burgarino, a Wisconsin sports bat owner. 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