Previously undisclosed crime scene photos buttress Marni Yang’s assertion that she did not kill the girlfriend of former Chicago Bear Shaun Gayle, Yang’s attorney said in a new court motion filed Monday.
Her attorney, Jed Stone, said Yang could not have shot Rhoni Reuter to death in 2007 based on photos of Reuter’s condo that were recently released by Deerfield police. The photos support Yang’s contention that she did not kill Reuter, who was pregnant with Gayle’s child at the time of her death.
Yang, who had been romantically involved with Gayle, was found guilty of Reuter’s murder in 2011, but has filed a post-conviction petition alleging her innocence. Her petition says that bullet trajectories measured at the crime scene rule out the 5-foot-tall Yang as the shooter. Stone said that the crime scene photos further support the assertion.
After the court-ordered release, the photos were discovered among those taken by investigators after the homicide, Stone said.
The motion also contends that Reuter, who was 42, had facial contusions that she received two or more days before her death on Oct. 4, 2007. The original autopsy failed to take note of them, the motion said.
“Someone beat this woman a few days before she was killed,” the motion said. “It wasn’t Marni Yang.”
The motion said friends heard Reuter and Gayle arguing several days before she was killed, and that Gayle had unexplained scabs and abrasions on his hands when he was questioned by police following the fatal shooting. Gayle, however, was excluded as a suspect by police.
Police later arrested Yang, whom authorities say shot Reuter out of jealousy. At her trial, prosecutors played a recording of a conversation during which Yang implicated herself. Yang, 53, is serving a life sentence.
Yang’s petition seeking a new trial or vacation of her conviction was back in court Tuesday for a brief hearing. Judge Christopher Stride set a late July date for Lake County prosecutors to respond to the defense motion. Prosecutors did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
