Marni Yang, serving life in prison for murder former Bear Shaun Gayle's girlfriend, appears for evidentiary hearing
Marni Yang, now serving life in prison for a 2007 shooting that left a romantic rival dead, was back in court this week.
Yang had another evidentiary hearing on Monday in Lake County Court in Waukegan, as her attorney calls for her release. The hearing began Monday and continued Tuesday.
Yang is serving a double life sentence for the shooting death of Rhoni Reuter and her unborn child in 2007. Reuter was found dead in her Deerfield condo that October of that year.
At the time, Reuter was the girlfriend of Shaun Gayle, a former Chicago Bears defensive back who played on the Super Bowl champion 1985 team. Prosecutors said Yang and Gayle were also romantically involved, and she was jealous of Reuter.
Yang was convicted in 2011, and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Prosecutors said Yang became obsessed with Gayle upon meeting him at a 20th anniversary Super Bowl party in 2005, and soon became Gayle's real estate agent and an occasional sex partner.
Prosecutors said Yang decided to kill Reuter when learning that Reuter was pregnant with Gayle's child. Gayle admitted on the witness stand in court that he engaged in sex with Yang the night before the murder.
During her trial, prosecutors played a recording of Yang confessing to the Reuter's murder to a friend who was wearing a wire.
But in court Monday, a forensic expert testified that evidence shows Yang is too short to be the shooter. A Vernon Hills police officer was also among the multiple witnesses called to the stand during the hearing Monday and Tuesday.
The evidentiary hearing is expected to last until Wednesday, after which point a judge will have 90 days to make a decision.
Yang's attorneys have also claimed her confession came as their client tried to protect others from being arrested, and that they ignored evidence showing she was innocent.
The evidentiary hearing is expected to last until Wednesday, after which point a judge will have 90 days to make a decision.
Yang's attorneys announced they would appeal her conviction in 2023.