No physical ties to crime, attorney says

Virginia Johannessen was a 75-year-old widow and pack rat who had decades worth of newspapers, books and other items stacked in piles that resembled a maze in her Aurora Township ranch and its basement.

So, if Edward Tenney broke into her home through a basement window and shot her dead during a robbery on Jan. 2 1993, how come none of the stacks were knocked over?

And why was there no footprints near the broken window, no fabric samples, no fingerprints in the home, no bullet shell casing found or murder weapon recovered?

"(There's) no physical evidence whatsoever," said Tenney's defense attorney, Herbert Hill, during opening arguments Tuesday in a Kane County courtroom.

Tenney was convicted in 1998 of Johannessen's murder and sentenced to death. But the Illinois Supreme Court in 2002 overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial. The high court ruled the former Aurora resident, now 48, did not receive a fair trial because incriminating statements from a man who was convicted of the crime in 1995 -- but later released -- were not allowed to be heard by a jury.

Lionel Lane was initially convicted of killing Johannessen in 1995 but released from prison after Tenney's cousin, Donald Lippert, admitted he was with Tenney during the shooting. Lippert received a 60-year sentence for cooperating with prosecutors and has been subpoenaed to testify, as has Lane.

Prosecutors again plan to rely on the eyewitness account from Lippert, who first testified he and Tenney went to rob Johannessen, but he got cold feet. So Tenney went inside through a basement window and Lippert stood watch outside, where he looked on through a large picture window as Tenney shot her.

"Their plan was they were going to rob Mrs. Johannessen," Assistant State's Attorney Jody Gleason said. "He wasn't the one who shot Mrs. Johannessen, but he was the one who saw the defendant shoot Virginia Johannessen."

Gleason, head of the office's criminal division, is prosecuting the case with State's Attorney John Barsanti, who first successfully prosecuted Tenney in the 1990s.

Prosecutors spent Tuesday calling Kane County Sheriff's officers, detectives and medical experts to establish that Johannessen was shot with a .22-caliber gun in the back of the head. She was found by her brother Jan. 5 who went to check on her. Authorities found a hope chest in a bedroom that had its lock pried open and her car at a nearby grocery store.

Investigators also found a large amount of clutter that Hill argued would be difficult for an intruder to move through if he was not familiar with the home and its contents.

"It was all neatly stacked in rows," testified Thomas Blincoe, one of the first sheriff's deputies at the home. "There were paths in it. It was very difficult to navigate around. I had to walk sideways to get through."

The trial is expected to last into next week.

Edward Tenney legal timeline

Since his arrest in May 1995, Edward Tenney has one of the longest running criminal cases in Kane County history, accused of three murders and serving a life sentence for one.

• 1993: Virginia Johannessen, a 75-year-old widow, found murdered in her Aurora Township home Jan. 2, shot and bludgeoned with a hammer. Jerry D. Weber, a 24-year-old father of two, shot to death and robbed April after his van got stuck in muddy field. Dairy heiress Jill Oberweis, 56, found fatally shot in her Aurora Township home in October. She and Johannessen lived on the same street.

• 1997: Tenney convicted of murdering Oberweis by a Kane County jury. • 1998: Tenney convicted of murdering Johannessen and sentenced to death by a Kane County jury. • 1999: Kane County Judge Donald Hudson sentences Tenney to life in prison for Oberweis murder. • 2002: Supreme Court overturns conviction for Johannessen murder because jurors were not allowed to hear testimony that another man was originally convicted of the crime but later released. The court rules Tenney is to be re-tried with a jury hearing all testimony.

• 2002: Tenney's lawyers win appeal as 2nd Appellate Court overturns sentence, saying in a 2-1 decision that a jury, not judge, should have handed down the life sentence for Oberweis' death.

• 2003: Kane County prosecutors appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court, which orders the appellate court to re-examine its decision on the Oberweis murder.

• 2004: 2nd Appellate Court reinstates Tenney's life sentence for Oberweis' murder.

• 2005: Kane County State's Attorney John Barsanti, who originally prosecuted Tenney for Johannessen's murder, takes the death penalty off the table because of new standards that make it more difficult to convict in a death penalty case and because he wanted to move to trial faster.

• 2006: Tenney's re-trial for Johannessen's murder is supposed to start, but the judge and prosecutors reluctantly agree to a delay to avoid leaving any defense strategy untested and opening door for successful appeal.

• This week: Re-trial of Tenney for Johannessen's murder started Monday with jury selection. Opening arguments and testimony began Tuesday. The trial could last two weeks.

• Tenney's trial in DuPage County for Weber's murder is pending. Source: Daily Herald archives