Widow tells jury of painful loss in Aurora murder

Before his violent death, Jerry Weber's two sons were so young and small, he could hold them in the palms of his hands, his widow said.

The boys, David and Erik, now 19 and 17, listened Wednesday as their mother described before a riveted DuPage County jury the husband she'll never forget, and the father they were robbed of ever knowing.

"Nearly 18 years ago, Edward Tenney killed my husband," Sharon Weber said, trying to fight back her tears. "What sounds like so long ago, is like yesterday to me. I'll never forget my life with Jerry. I fell in love with him instantly and that love has never left me to this day.

"He was a good man and we were truly happy."

Last week, a DuPage County jury convicted Tenney of killing Jerry Weber late April 16, 1992 in Aurora. Tenney robbed the 24-year-old Aurora man of a wallet containing $6, as Weber tried to free his van from a muddy field, three weeks after his second son was born.

The jury, led by a 65-year-old Willowbrook woman as its foreman, is considering whether to impose a death sentence. If not, the 50-year-old Tenney will receive his third life prison term. He is serving two life prison terms for the 1993 fatal shootings of 75-year-old Virginia Johannessen and dairy heiress Mary Jill Oberweis, 56. The two widows were killed 10 months apart in separate home invasions in an Aurora Township neighborhood in Kane County.

Sharon Weber delivered an emotional victim-impact statement in which she described finding her husband's bullet-riddled body after she went searching for him the next morning when he failed to return home after gathering flagstones for a backyard garden project. She said he worked hard each day to fix up their little starter home.

"I'll never forget waking up to find he had never come home, looking out that window over and over again," said Weber, who bundled up her two sons and went looking for him. "My heart sank when I saw that van. I ran to him. He was laying in that mud with blood on his face. I screamed and called out his name. He never moved. I listened in disbelief as a policeman told me my husband was dead. I looked over to my children in the car - so innocent. My toddler was drinking from his sippy cup, completely unaware their lives had changed forever."

A widow at 21, she never remarried and raised David and Erik to live a life that honors their father's name, while putting herself through school to become a registered nurse.

"I did everything I could to bring the boys up in a way that would have made their father proud, and they are extraordinary, wonderful young men," Sharon Weber said.

Tenney gave little reaction as he heard Weber's powerful words. Jurors watched as she shot Tenney a long, stern look after leaving the witness stand. She left him with these final words:

"You should know, Edward Tenney - You did not stop us. This day has been a long time in coming. This day is for Jerry, a loving husband and adoring father; a decent, respectful, hardworking man, just trying to do the best for his family. This day is for him, so that he will never be forgotten."