Judge limits testimony in 1979 Inverness murder trial

A psychologist will not be allowed to testify about Jacquelyn Greco's character when the former Inverness woman goes on trial for murdering her husband.

Cook County Judge Marc Martin ruled Friday that Dr. Charles Heller's diagnosis that Greco, 69, suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder, codependency and borderline personality might have been admissible had Greco asserted insanity or self-defense. But, as Martin pointed out, her attorneys have argued neither.

"Codependency is not a pertinent character trait ... nor is it an element of any recognizable defense raised in this case," said Martin, who described Heller's testimony as an attempt to "explain post-offense conduct."

Greco is charged with the 1979 murder of her husband, commodities broker Carl Gaimari, in the couple's Inverness home. Gaimari was shot to death during a home invasion authorities say Greco helped plan.

About 12:30 p.m. on April 30, 1979, two masked men entered the home, announced a robbery and tied up Greco and three of the couple's four children in a bedroom closet, prosecutors said.

Gaimari was killed when he returned home about an hour later, prosecutors said.

The case was cold until 2013. Police arrested Greco in May of that year after Inverness police and prosecutors from the Cook County State's Attorney's Cold Case Unit received a wiretap order and obtained a phone conversation during which they say Greco told someone she had planned to kill Gaimari.

Authorities say Greco was having an affair at the time of the murder.

Within weeks of Gaimari's death, Greco's lover moved in with her and they married several months later, authorities say.

Greco, who had no criminal background, is being held without bail in Cook County jail. She next appears in court on Oct. 24.