A three-day hearing into the fate of Marni Yang, found guilty in 2011 of the murder of the girlfriend of a former Chicago Bears player in 2007, ended Wednesday with the news that a ruling on whether she gets a new trial will not come for four months.
Over three days, Jed Stone, representing Yang, presented arguments to Judge Christopher Stride, attempting to cast doubts on the verdict in the murder of 42-year-old Rhoni Reuter, who was pregnant with the baby of former Bear Shaun Gayle when she was killed.
Reuter was found shot dead at her Deerfield condominium in 2007. At trial, prosecutors contended that Yang, who had previously been involved with Gayle, killed Reuter out of jealousy.
What happens next — whether Stride will order a new trial, or decide the new evidence does not undercut the jury’s guilty finding — will remain a mystery until a ruling set for May 15.
Yang filed a petition in 2019 seeking a new trial and alleging her innocence.
Stone repeatedly argued that evidence pointed to a shooter much taller than Yang. Stone focused on “bullet B” — determined to have been fired at close range based on gunshot residue — which he said struck Reuter at a slightly downward angle, hitting her in the chest and arm before landing in the kitchen. Yang, at just 5 feet tall, was too short to have fired the shot, he argued.
Stone also talked about an alleged incident at a barbershop the day of the murder, where a witness claimed to have seen Gayle enter and make statements implicating himself in the murder. He also pointed to a comment Gayle made to a Deerfield police officer about Reuter being found in a pool of blood, which Stone argued he could not have known about unless he had been there.
During closing arguments in this week’s three-day hearing, Stone attempted to show Gayle as a potential suspect, pointing to alleged abrasions on Gayle’s hands observed during the murder investigation. Combined with expert testimony that some of Reuter’s injuries had occurred days prior to the shooting, Stone painted a far different motive than that of the jealous woman killing a romantic rival.
“The defense believes that Reuter, pregnant, days before she was shot, was a victim of domestic violence,” Stone said.
After the hearing concluded, Stone told reporters that Gayle had paid Reuter for prior abortions, and didn’t want to get married.
During its closing arguments, the prosecution took issue with several aspects of the defense’s arguments, throwing doubt on the testimony of several key people, including the barbershop witness, who has a criminal record.
They again pushed back on the finding that Yang was too short to have been the one to fatally shoot Reuter, arguing it was based on assumptions that couldn’t be verified using the crime scene evidence.
“There’s no set way a body’s going to react when it’s shot,” a prosecution expert said during the hearing.
If Reuter crouched or tried to duck, that could also explain the trajectory of the bullet, he had said.
Prosecutors also argued the new evidence shared in the hearing didn’t meet the standards for newly discovered evidence and was not conclusive enough to undermine the jury’s verdict.
After the hearing concluded, Yang’s father, Larry Merar, told reporters how the case had hurt the family.
“It’s difficult to imagine until it lands on your doorstep,” he said.