Marni Yang, who is serving a life sentence for the 2007 murder of a perceived romantic rival, will be able to present evidence suggesting the person who shot the victim was much taller than Yang, a Lake County judge ruled Thursday.
Judge Christopher Stride said the evidence can be presented when Yang’s post-conviction case advances to the hearing stage. Yang is seeking to overturn her 2011 conviction for the killing of Rhoni Reuter, the pregnant girlfriend of former Chicago Bear Shaun Gayle, who was shot to death in her Deerfield condominium.
In a 33-page ruling published Thursday, the judge dismissed many of Yang’s post-conviction claims as not meeting the standard for an evidentiary hearing. But his decision to allow evidence regarding the height of Reuter’s killer was greeted by Yang attorney Jed Stone as critical in her bid for a new trial.
“This is the key that unlocks everything,” Stone said after Thursday’s hearing. A few minutes earlier, he and Yang exchanged a high-five in the courtroom as they read through the judge’s order after the hearing.
Stride said Yang’s contention that she is too short to have shot Reuter is a new factual assertion, and therefore something that can be decided only at an evidentiary hearing.
“As a result, this court must hear and consider relevant evidence to determine whether (Yang) can establish her claim of actual innocence based on newly discovered evidence concerning the height of the shooter,” the judge wrote.
Stride dismissed other Yang claims that her trial counsel was ineffective, and that prosecutors had engaged in misconduct.
Reuter, who was seven months pregnant with Gayle’s child, was shot at about 8 a.m. on Oct. 4, 2007, and was found dead in the kitchen of her condo. Yang met Gayle, who played on the 1986 Super Bowl championship team, at a 2005 Chicago Bears convention and they engaged in a relationship, according to authorities.
Police contend that Yang killed Reuter out of jealousy. At trial, a friend of Yang’s described details of the murder that the friend said Yang had shared with her. The friend also testified that she accompanied Yang as Yang disposed of evidence connected to the slaying.
Yang has said she fabricated details because she knew her friend was wearing a recording device. Yang said she wanted to derail police, who were looking at her son as a possible suspect in Reuter’s murder.
Yang was tried in March 2011 and found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder. She is serving a life sentence.