Marni Yang's defense team looking into Shaun Gayle's alibi
An investigator hired by the defense team for Marni Yang, who is serving two life sentences for the 2007 slaying of the pregnant girlfriend of former Chicago Bear Shaun Gayle, said Wednesday he was looking into Gayle's alibi.
Yang, 52, was convicted of first-degree murder in 2011 for killing Rhoni Reuter and her unborn child in Deerfield on Oct. 4, 2007. Yang's attorneys are seeking a new trial.
"He (Gayle) dated Rhoni for 16 years. We're questioning his alibi; the timeline just does not add up," Steve LaPino, a senior investigator with MSI Detective Services, told the media Wednesday morning.
Police questioned Gayle but ruled him out as a suspect. An email for comment sent to Donna Rotunno, an attorney who represented Gayle, was not immediately returned.
LaPino's comments followed a brief court hearing in which Yang's defense attorney Jed Stone and Assistant State's Attorney Jason Humke traded motions requesting access to evidence.
Humke is seeking access to DNA analysis done by Dr. Karl Reich, an expert hired by Yang's defense team.
Stone's requests include access to surveillance camera footage from a barber shop where Gayle was when he received word of the murder.
"I want to see the whole range of them to see what evidence is contained there, if any," Stone said. "We're researching what he claimed to be his alibi and we'll turn the results of that research over to the prosecutor to let the prosecutor do the right thing."
Stone is also seeking permission to run fingerprints discovered on the front door of Reuter's condo through a national database. He said the state has ruled out the fingerprints as belonging to Yang, Reuter or any of the police officers who worked the case.
When Yang was convicted in 2011, evidence against her included secretly recorded conversations in which Yang can be heard describing the fatal shooting to a friend.
The case will be back before Judge Christopher Stride on Feb. 27.