A jury trial has begun in Will County for a Crest Hill man charged with killing a bartender and wounding the bar owner’s son in a shooting in 2018.

The case lingered in pretrial limbo for seven-and-half years.

On Tuesday, Will County Assistant State’s Attorney James Zanayed told the jury they will see evidence with their own eyes proving Patrick Gleason, 63, committed the deadly shooting on March 9, 2018 at Izzy’s bar, 507 Theodore St., Joliet.

“You’re going to see it through Izzy’s cameras,” Zanayed said.

Since the shooting, Gleason has been facing a charge of first-degree murder of Daniel Rios III, 52, of Joliet, who worked as a bartender at Izzy’s.

Gleason is also charged with the attempted murder of Artis Henderson and aggravated battery of Thomas Izquierdo, the son of Alfonso Izquierdo, the owner of Izzy’s bar.

Since 2018, the case has dealt with recurring pretrial issues, such as whether Gleason was mentally fit for trial, as well as his conflicts with past attorneys on the case.

Gleason filed his own motions, such as one to exhume Rios’ body, and filed lawsuits claiming he was framed by the police.

During a pretrial hearing in 2021, Gleason took the stand and claimed the surveillance video that prosecutors wanted to admit in the case was “all doctored up” and that he had been set up by the police and “phony witnesses.”

On Tuesday, Zanayed told jurors that Gleason was a patron who was angry after he was kicked out of the bar and he drove back with “murder on his mind.”

Zanayed said Gleason shot Rios in the face after he returned to the bar and then chased after Henderson while armed with a gun.

Zanayed said Gleason fired off a shot that barely missed Henderson’s head. Other patrons intervened and tried to pull the gun away from Gleason, he said.

“It was chaos. They were fighting for their life,” Zanayed said.

Zanayed said Thomas Izquierdo was shot in the abdomen when he tried to get the gun away from Gleason.

Gleason’s attorney, Jeff Tomczak, told the jury to remember his client is presumed innocent of the charges and prosecutors have the burden of proof “from the beginning to the end.”

Tomczak asked the jurors to keep an open mind about the evidence and the context of that evidence.

“Context is crucial in this case,” he said.

Tomczak asked jurors to question the Joliet Police Department‘s investigation of the case and whether there was evidence the department ignored.

The first witness called to the stand was Julie Martinez, Rios’ sister, who said she had a close relationship with her brother. She was shown a photo of Rios, who was smiling and wearing a White Sox shirt.

“Yes, that’s my brother, Daniel Rios III,” said Martinez, who began to cry after she said the photo of him was “very accurate.”