Officer testifies murder suspect threatened Naperville police
DuPage County prosecutors wrapped up their weeklong case against Naperville murder suspect Daniel Olaska Monday afternoon with testimony from a Naperville officer who says he was threatened repeatedly by Olaska after arresting him.
Officer Kevin Fasana said Olaska, in a "matter-of-fact voice," warned the officer, "You're going to get yours."
Fasana said Olaska repeated the phrase about five times during the milelong drive from Frankies Blue Room to the Naperville police station in the early morning hours of Feb. 4, 2012.
Olaska, 30, of the 1500 block of Foxhill Road in Naperville, is charged with the Feb. 4 first-degree murder of Springbrook Elementary School teacher Shaun Wild and the attempted murders of Willie Hayes, who was Wild's friend and a former North Central College football player, and Rafael Castaneda, who worked security at the bar. Olaska is also charged with unlawful use of a weapon.
Prosecutors say Olaska stabbed Hayes in the chest following a brief but heated exchange. Olaska, they say, then stabbed Wild in the heart as Wild tried to keep Olaska from fleeing the bar. Castaneda was also slashed in the arm as tried to separate Olaska from Wild after the fatal stabbing.
Both Fasana and Naperville police officer Theresa Stock testified that Olaska was moving "quickly" and "abruptly" down the bar's front stairs, toward Chicago Avenue, after the stabbing. Both officers also testified Olaska ignored Fasana's orders stop at least three times before Fasana was able to grab Olaska's left arm and detain him in the stairway, where another patron and bouncer identified him as the suspect.
Fasana said he was still holding a cuffed Olaska several minutes later when rescuers wheeled Wild down the stairs to a waiting ambulance.
Fasana said as Wild was being wheeled down, his arm slipped off the stretcher and was dangling. The arm brushed against Olaska's shoulder.
"(Olaska) just looked up and leaned his head against the wall," Fasana said. When pressed by defense attorneys why such a detail wasn't in Fasana's report of the arrest, Fasana said he didn't need to write it down.
"It was an eerie image," Fasana said. "When I saw it, I knew I'd never forget it."
Defense attorneys also kicked off their case late Monday with testimony from two Naperville detectives working the case and immediately began laying the foundation for their self-defense defense strategy.
Detective Richard Arsenault, who testified for the prosecution earlier in the afternoon, testified that he interviewed Hayes two days after the stabbing at Hayes' parents' home. Arsenault testified that Hayes told him he was on the dance floor at Frankies about 12:30 a.m. on Feb. 4, 2012 when an "unknown friend" told him Olaska had been making fun of his tight shirt and pointed Olaska out to him before Hayes approached Olaska in the booth.
Several other witnesses have testified to hearing at least portions of the conversation in which Olaska made fun of Hayes' shirt and Hayes ridiculed Olaska for "drinking beer out of a wineglass."
The defense is expected to continue its case at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in courtroom 4004. The trial is expected to go the jury as late as Thursday.