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Defense says Michael Bakana acted in self-defense in 2021 Bloomington shooting

Clyde Guilamo, defense attorney for Michael Bakana, speaks Wednesday morning at the McLean County courthouse during jury trial against Bakana. Bakana is charged with murder, attempted murder and aggravated battery/discharge of a firearm in the death of 22-year-old Mariah C. Petracca in January 2021.
Clay Jackson
/
The Pantagraph (Pool)
Clyde Guilamo, defense attorney for Michael Bakana, speaks Wednesday morning at the McLean County courthouse during jury trial against Bakana. Bakana is charged with murder, attempted murder and aggravated battery/discharge of a firearm in the death of 22-year-old Mariah C. Petracca in January 2021.

Jurors leaned forward in their seats Wednesday for a closer look at video of Michael Bakana firing 10 shots at two women, killing one of them, after an argument outside a Bloomington bar.

Bakana was not in the courtroom for the third day of his trial on murder, attempted murder and aggravated battery charges. The 44-year-old cut off an ankle monitor Monday morning at the same time his trial was scheduled to begin and remains at large.

The video was played during testimony from Bloomington Police detective Paul Jones. The angry words exchanged between Bakana, Mariah Petracca, and Petracca's friend escalated to violence after a Jan. 29, 2021, encounter on the sidewalk outside Daddios. Bakana’s lawyers have argued that he acted in self-defense against the two victims.

The 12 minutes captured on a Bloomington Police public safety camera and displayed for jurors showed the intoxicated women struggling to stand after they were asked to leave the bar. A brief verbal altercation with Bakana appears to end when he walks away and crosses North Main Street.

A witness testified earlier Wednesday that he saw Bakana go to his car, lean inside the vehicle and return less than a minute later. Back on the sidewalk, the argument resumes and becomes physical when Bakana is shoved into a brick wall by one of the women.

The video shows Bakana reaching behind him and pulling a handgun from his waistband. The multiple flashes from four seconds of gunfire end with both women on the sidewalk. Petracca died at the scene and her friend was taken to the hospital for injuries that left her without full use of her left arm. Two shots were fired after the women were on the ground.

The suspect dropped to his knees and raised his arms after the shooting. A witness who rushed to the scene after watching it unfold across the street testified Wednesday that he heard Bakana confess to the shooting.

In his testimony Wednesday, forensic pathologist Dr. Scott Denton described the wounds suffered by both victims. Petracca’s wounds included three in the back. Her friend was shot multiple times in the arm and on her side. The shots were fired from a position behind and to the right of the victims, Denton told jurors.

Assistant State's Attorney David Fitt speaks Wednesday morning during opening statements at the McLean County courthouse during jury trial against Michael Bakana.
Clay Jackson
/
The Pantagraph (Pool)
Assistant State's Attorney David Fitt speaks Wednesday morning during opening statements at the McLean County courthouse during jury trial against Michael Bakana.

Opening statements

Judge Casey Costigan ruled Tuesday that the trial would move forward in Bakana’s absence after he failed to show up in court Monday. A no-cash warrant has been issued for his arrest and his $200,000 cash previously posted has been forfeited.

The 2021 dispute turned deadly after Bakana fired "10 shots at two drunk girls,” prosecutor David Fitt told jurors Wednesday in opening statements.

Defense lawyer Sean Brown likened the incident to a playground scenario where a small child encounters two bullies “and he decides to fight back.” Bakana is a small man, said Brown, who was confronted by two women who collectively outweighed him by 150 pounds.

“There’s not much to dispute about what happened. There is a dispute about why it happened,” Brown told jurors.

Alcohol and hatred were behind the violence, said Brown, calling the incident “a two-on-one situation.”

“You’re going to hear evidence that Mariah and (her friend) were spewing profanity and racial epitaphs” at Bakana. The defendant left the area and returned “because (the friend) spit in his face and called him the N-word,” Brown said, in his statement supporting a self-defense claim.

The deceased victim’s father, Stephen Petracca, was called as the state’s first witness and identified a photo of his daughter. The image of the smiling 21-year-old blonde was displayed on a monitor in the courtroom.

In response to questions from defense lawyer Clyde Guilamo, the father acknowledged that his daughter sometimes became abusive when she was intoxicated. He denied being hit by her, saying “I was afraid for her, that she could get hurt,” during drinking episodes.

Petracca also had hopes for his daughter, who was the mother to a boy, now 7.

“I wanted her to get a job, get an education and get on with her life,” said the father.

Survivor and witness testimony

The surviving victim of the shooting had difficulty remembering specific details of the shooting that left her permanently disabled. She said she did not recall being kicked out of Daddios for dancing on a stage after being told to stop. She recalls the argument outside the bar while she and Petracca were waiting to get back inside to retrieve her phone, but she has no memory of who she else was involved in the dispute that started after she saw the person attempt to record her on a cellphone.

“I just remember a flashback. A pain in my back, then everything goes black again,” said the witness.

The woman stood and showed jurors the scars on her left arm that now has 40% mobility and the marks on her side and back left by the gunshots.

According to an evidence stipulation read by the judge, her blood-alcohol level was .174, more than twice the legal limit for driving.

Colton Parchert testified he saw the altercation as he walked with a friend across the street from Daddio’s.

“I saw at least five or six shots flying at the girls … they fell immediately. They didn’t get very far,” said Parchert, adding that “he was still shooting as they were down.”

The witness said he ran towards the shooting and saw Bakana kneeling on the sidewalk with his hands in the air. Parchert said he heard the alleged shooter say, “Oh my gosh, what did I just do?”

Parchert recalled kicking the handgun out of the way of bystanders.

The trial continues Thursday with additional testimony from the Bloomington detective and ballistics experts.

Edith began her career as a reporter with The DeWitt County Observer, a weekly newspaper in Clinton. From 2007 to June 2019, Edith covered crime and legal issues for The Pantagraph, a daily newspaper in Bloomington, Illinois. She previously worked as a correspondent for The Pantagraph covering courts and local government issues in central Illinois.
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