Prosecutors plan to play tape
Donald Lippert says he can't recall now where he was and who he was with in January 1993 when 75-year-old Virginia Johannessen was slain in her Aurora Township home.
So Kane County prosecutors want to show a jury what Lippert told police when he was first arrested in 1995.
Prosecutors plan to introduce an audio recording of Lippert -- their key witness in the retrial of Edward Tenney in Johannessen's murder -- when the trial resumes Monday.
Lippert testified against his cousin Tenney in 1998, but the conviction and death sentence were thrown out by the Illinois Supreme Court.
Tenney, 48, is serving a life sentence for the October 1993 murder of dairy heiress Mary Jill Oberweis, who lived down the street from Johannessen.
Tenney also is accused of killing and robbing Jerry D. Weber, a 24-year-old father of two, in April 1993 after his van broke down in a field. DuPage County prosecutors have yet to try that case.
Lippert cut a deal with prosecutors to testify against Tenney in all three cases. He was sentenced to 80 years but only will serve half that.
On the 1995 tape, Lippert refers to all three killings, and prosecutors spent Friday removing statements about the other two cases so they will not taint the jury.
Lippert, who was incoherent and uncooperative on the stand Thursday, will resume his testimony Monday.
Prosecutors argue Tenney and Lippert went to Johannessen's home to rob her. After Lippert got scared, Tenney went inside and shot her in the back of the head, authorities allege, and Lippert saw it all through a large window as he stood watch outside.
Authorities also recovered Johannessen's jewelry, a 1934 high school class ring and other items from a storage locker shared by Tenney, two cousins and uncle in 1995.
Defense attorney Herbert Hill said there is no physical evidence such as fingerprints, footprints, clothing fibers or a shell casing that puts Tenney at the scene.
In 2002, the state Supreme Court ruled Tenney did not receive a fair trial for the Johannessen murder because incriminating statements from a man who was convicted of the crime in 1995, but later exonerated, were not heard by a jury.