‘Reopened wounds’: Fourteen years after murder conviction, Marni Yang returns to court
Marni Yang has waited six years for a court hearing that could lead to her receiving a new trial or exoneration in the Oct. 4, 2007, murder of Rhoni Reuter, the pregnant girlfriend of former Chicago Bear Shaun Gayle.
She will have to wait a little longer.
Lake County Judge Christopher R. Stride postponed proceedings just as they started Monday, after prosecutors claimed Yang attorney Jed Stone introduced evidence he had not previously turned over.
“This is an entirely new report dropped on us,” Assistant Lake County State’s Attorney Scott Hoffert said. “There is handwriting. There are photos I’ve not seen before. We want time to review this 111-page new document.”
In earlier proceedings, Stone introduced crime scene evidence he said shows Yang, 57, could not have killed the 42-year-old Reuter, who was shot to death in her Deerfield home. That evidence includes DNA from an unknown man on five unspent bullet shells found at the crime scene and a forensic pathologist’s report stating the killer was taller than the 5-foot-tall Yang.
Authorities say Yang killed Reuter and her unborn child, Skylar, because she was jealous of her relationship with Gayle. Jurors in 2011 convicted her of first-degree murder and she was sentenced to life in prison.
“We are heartbroken and frustrated by the ongoing attempts to receive a retrial for the person who was already found guilty,” Reuter’s younger brother, Thad Reuter, said in a prepared statement Monday. “The evidence is clear, the verdict was just and this process should have brought closure — not reopened wounds.”
Yang appeared in court Monday clothed in a prison uniform and using a cane. At one point she greeted family members and supporters who sat behind her in the Lake County courtroom.
After prosecutors complained about the lack of disclosure from Yang’s defense, a frustrated Stride called a 3⅟₂-hour recess for them to review the documents and other exhibits.
When court reconvened Monday afternoon, Stride announced a delay in the proceedings and scheduled a status hearing for Aug. 18.
Stone later denied his actions were an attempt to ambush prosecutors.
“I was trying to get people information I had received,” he said.
“We’re ready to roll,” Stone added. “We’re ready to advance her claim of innocence.”
Thad Reuter, however, said that on behalf of his and other victims’ families, “the truth should not be put on trial again and again.”
“Every time this case is dragged back into court, it forces our family to relive the unimaginable pain of losing them,” he said.