Michael Bakana

Michael Bakana, 45, was convicted last year of a fatal shooting outside a Bloomington nightclub in January 2021. Mariah Petracca, 22, of Bloomington was shot and killed. Another woman, Bibi Cornejo of Bloomington, was wounded in the shooting.

Michael Bakana was found guilty in May of killing Mariah Petracca of Bloomington, and wounding another woman, Bibi Cornejo, also of Bloomington, outside Daddios bar on North Main Street.

Sentencing was delayed Thursday for Michael Bakana, who was convicted of killing one woman and severely injuring another in a January 2021 shooting in downtown Bloomington.

Bibi Cornejo’s understanding of the trauma and harm of gunfire changed on Jan. 30, 2021 when Michael Bakana fired 10 rounds toward her and a friend, 22-year-old Mariah Petracca, following a dispute among the three outside Daddios bar on North Main Street in downtown Bloomington.

The jury in the Michael Bakana murder trial reached its verdict after about two hours of deliberations Friday. Bakana was accused of shooting two women in downtown Bloomington in 2021.

Fear of the violent nature of some Americans caused Michael Bakana to fire 10 rounds from his handgun during a deadly dispute outside a downtown bar, according to Bakana's statement given to police two hours after the 2021 incident.

A dispute outside a Bloomington bar turned deadly in January 2021 after Michael Bakana fired "10 shots at two drunk girls,” prosecutor David Fitt told jurors Wednesday in opening statements in Bakana’s murder trial.

News about the manhunt for Michael Bakana — the man missing from his jury trial on murder charges — made it into the courtroom Tuesday as several potential jurors disclosed what they had heard about the search.

Authorities say a Normal man failed to show up for the start of his murder trial Monday and is now on the run – and considered armed and dangerous.