Tenney's life sentence stands

A man serving life in prison for the 1993 murder of dairy heiress Mary Jill Oberweis lost a bid for a new sentence in his conviction for a second slaying in Aurora Township.

Edward Tenney, through his lawyer, filed court documents asking a Kane County judge to reconsider the sentence he received in September in the death of 75-year-old Virginia Johannessen.

The request was denied at a hearing Friday before Chief Judge Don Hudson, according to Jody Gleason, a prosecutor assigned to the case.

The women had resided in the same neighborhood and were killed during break-ins at their homes.

Tenney, 48, was first convicted in the Oberweis slaying and in 1998 was found guilty and sentenced to death in Johannessen's murder.

He won a new trial in 2002, which brought the cases back to Kane County. The new trial ended Sept. 28, 2007, with a new guilty verdict, which meant a mandatory life sentence. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty in the new trial.

His cousin and an accomplice in both women's murders, Donald Lippert, 32, also was convicted and is serving an 80-year sentence.

Tenney also is accused in the 1993 murder of 24-year-old Jerry D. Weber in DuPage County, where prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty.