DeKalb man found guilty in violent 2021 home invasion, rape; faces decades in prison

SYCAMORE – Robert D. Gaillard of DeKalb was found guilty on all counts of armed robbery, home invasion and aggravated criminal sexual assault by a 12-member jury of his peers Thursday for a violent 2021 attack during which he pistol-whipped a DeKalb man and raped a woman at gunpoint in front of her children.

Gaillard is scheduled to be sentenced at 1:30 p.m. May 20. He faces a minimum of 63 years to life imprisonment and fines up to $250,000.

While the verdict was read around 2:30 p.m. Thursday, 29-year-old Gaillard, outfitted in a grey button-up shirt and red patterned tie, did not appear to show any visible reaction. He will remain held at DeKalb County Jail on no bond, as he’s been since his January 2021 arrest.

The verdict concluded a three-day socially distanced trial where prosecutors presented evidence that showed Gaillard broke into an apartment in the 800 block of Spiros Court on DeKalb’s north side Jan. 19, 2021 and attacked a man and a woman, seemingly in retaliation for a separate incident which involved Gaillard’s fiancée and a gun. Prosecutors said that same gun was used by Gaillard to beat a 27-year-old DeKalb man and raped a woman a gunpoint, forcing her to perform oral sex on him in front of her two young children.

[ Trial begins for DeKalb man charged in 2021 violent home invasion, rape ]

Closing arguments wrapped around 12:30 p.m. Thursday, after days of testimony offered by law enforcement, forensic experts from the Illinois State Police and witnesses. The victims also testified during an emotional Tuesday, telling the jury how Gaillard broke into their home around 1:17 a.m. that night and violently attacked them. The victims’ children, ages 3 and 4 at the time, were asleep in the room where the woman was raped. The male victim’s brother, who also testified, fled the apartment wearing nothing but underwear and called police to report the attack.

DeKalb County State’s Attorney Rick Amato – who lead the prosecution team and during his closing argument Thursday called the brutal incident “unexplainable and unforgivable,” – said the guilty verdict means justice for the victims.

“This is something that from day one they never deserved,” Amato said in an interview after the trial. “It was one of the more horrendous cases you’re ever going to see in our community. The family’s done the right thing from day one and let the court system handle the matter. It takes the entire community, from our victims to our law enforcement to the members of the jury, to be able to get the justice that we received today for these victims.”

Gaillard’s defense attorney, Sycamore-based lawyer Brian Erwin, declined to comment after the verdict was read. Erwin argued during the trial that prosecutors hadn’t presented enough evidence to put the gun in Gaillard’s hands, and that testimony alleging a rape wasn’t enough proof that it happened. Another man, Awaan Woods, 26, who lived with Gaillard in DeKalb, is accused of participating in the apartment break-in and attack.

Records allege two sisters – Alexis S. Mackey, 25, and Brianna P. Mackey, 26, of DeKalb – got into an argument with some coworkers on the social media platform Snapchat. They met up with two people in the parking lot in the 800 block of Edgebrook Drive about 1 a.m. Jan. 19, 2021 “to fight,” according to a DeKalb police report.

Toward the end of the fight, Brianna Mackey, who is Gaillard’s fiancée, allegedly fired a gun into the air and the two sisters drove off, then later told Gaillard and Woods what happened. Police believe it’s the same gun used in the Spiros Court home invasion. In a 2021 interview with DeKalb Police Det. Rey Hernandez shown during the trial, Gaillard told police he believed the male victim in the Spiros Court attack was the reason why the Mackey fight occurred, and that’s why he beat him.

“Some girls jumped on my girl,” Gaillard told Hernandez in 2021. “I said, ‘You don’t do my girl and her sister like that.’ "

Woods is charged with home invasion, unlawful possession of ammunition by a felon and obstructing identification. The Mackey sisters are charged in the fight incident. Brianna Mackey is charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, mob action, reckless discharge of a firearm and aggravated battery in a public place. Alexis Mackey is charged with mob action and aggravated battery in a public place. Both Mackeys pleaded not guilty on March 19, 2021, according to records, and are set for status hearings later this month and next. Woods is expected to appear for a status hearing March 23.

Police found the gun after the apartment attack frozen in the snow under a bush nearly 30 feet away outside an apartment building at 1212 Varsity Boulevard. Gaillard was arrested heading from Spiros Court toward Varsity Boulevard after attempting to run from police. The woman victim’s cellphone was also found on Gaillard’s person.

Prosecutors for days presented the jury with evidence and witness testimony which connected Gaillard to the attack using DNA, body camera footage from DeKalb and Northern Illinois University police who responded to the scene, and footage from the Hernandez interview. The woman victim’s DNA was found on a swab collected from Gaillard’s genitals by forensic teams, and both victims’ DNA and Gaillard’s was found on the gun, according to witness testimony and DNA forensic results presented.

Gaillard pleaded not guilty to all charges prior to the trial, and denied the rape occurred in a police interview. He declined to testify.

[ Prosecutors point to DNA in second day of DeKalb man’s rape, home invasion trial ]

During her closing remarks offered to jurors – made up of six women and eight men – Circuit Court Judge Marcy Buick proclaimed the significance of the court proceedings.

“Jury service is one of the most important roles that we can serve as Americans,” Buick said. “The right to a trial by a jury of your fellow citizens is one of the most sacred rights that you can possess in this country. Jury trials are one of the pillars of democracy, and in many ways, the right to a jury trial separates us from the rest of the world.”

Asst. State’s Attorney Suzanne Collins called the defense’s argument victim blaming in a sharp rebuttal offered before the less than two-hour jury deliberations began. She called the jury “the conscience of the community.”

“What kind of a guy takes his fiancée’s gun and holds it to the head of another woman and forces her to give him oral sex when her children are in the room?” Collins said, pointing to Gaillard. “That guy.”

This story was updated at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 17, 2022.