Cousin reluctantly testifies in re-trial

If Edward Tenney is going to be convicted in the slaying of an elderly Aurora woman, it might be due in large part to testimony from 1998, not Thursday.

Donald Lippert, Tenney's cousin and a key witness for Kane County prosecutors, was incoherent and uncooperative on the witness stand Thursday.

Lippert testified against Tenney in 1998, but the conviction for murdering 75-year-old Virginia Johannessen in 1993 was overturned by the state Supreme Court.

Lippert, serving a reduced sentence for his role in the slaying because of his previous cooperation with prosecutors, at first did not want to testify in the re-trial of Tenney, 48.

"I did that, you know what I'm sayin'? The state screwed up. … (Tenney) got a new trial," Lippert said in court.

D.J. Tegeler, Lippert's attorney, reminded him he was under subpoena and could have time added to his sentence if he did not testify.

Earlier Thursday, Lippert, a diabetic, said his blood sugar levels were high. Attorneys said he lay on the floor because he didn't trust jail guards to give him an insulin shot. The court provided him with soup, a sandwich, a bagel and an apple to make him feel better.

Once Lippert took the witness stand, he frequently replied, "I don't recall," to questions from State's Attorney John Barsanti.

Barsanti juxtaposed Lippert's mumbling testimony Thursday with transcripts from his 1998 testimony that he and Tenney went to Johannessen's ranch home in January 1993 to rob her. They broke out a basement window, but Lippert got scared and Tenney told him to stand watch outside. Through a picture window, Lippert testified, he saw Tenney shoot her in the back of the head. Lippert testified Tenney then used a hammer to hit the woman on the forehead.

Barsanti used the 1998 transcripts to show the jury Lippert's prior testimony was different and more definitive than what was said Thursday.

Tenney is serving a life sentence for the October 1993 murder of dairy heiress Mary Jill Oberweis, who lived down the street from Johannessen. Lippert testified in that trial they both shot her.

On Thursday Lippert appeared to mix up his murders, at one point saying he shot Johannessen and then that he and Tenney shot her.

In 2002, the state Supreme Court ruled Tenney did not receive a fair trial in the Johannessen murder 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.

Lippert's testimony resumes today.