Jury Convicts Yang of Murder, Victim’s Family Rejoices

The woman accused of killing the pregnant girlfriend of former Bears player Shaun Gayle was convicted in court Tuesday. Marni Yang was found guilty on all counts of first-degree murder and intentional homicide of an unborn child. 

Prosecutors say Yang “executed” 42-year-old Rhoni Reuter in her Deerfield condo in 2007 because she wanted to “eliminate the competition.” At the time of the murder, Reuter was six months pregnant with Gayle’s child. Yang was also romantically involved with the Super Bowl winner.   

Gayle and Reuter’s family remained silent while the verdict was read but rejoiced afterwards.

“Justice is served,” Gayle said during a press conference. “It’s been a long time coming.”

“Needless to say we’re overjoyed with the jury’s verdict,” Thad Reuter, the victim’s brother, told reporters.

It took four hours for the jury to deliberate Tuesday after more then two weeks of court proceedings.

During that time prosecutors detailed Yang’s calculated plan to kill Reuter and explained how she did it. 

“This was probably the strongest evidence I’ve personally seen in my career in the Lake County States Attorney’s Office regarding a plan to commit murder,” prosecutor Patricia Fix stated Tuesday after the verdict was announced.  

Yang and Gayle initially met at a Bears fan convention in Chicago in 2005. In court, Gayle told jurors their relationship turned from professional to personal and said he had sex with Yang the night before Reuter was murdered.

The defense focused part of its closing arguments on Yang’s relationship with Gayle. “This case begins, for good or evil, with Shaun Gayle,” defense attorney Ben Heidrick said, and claimed the ex-Bear treated Yang poorly.

“I’ll always have regrets,” Gayle said Tuesday. “That’s going to be something I live with and I knew that the moment the task force identified who had done this.”

According to authorities, on Oct. 4, 2007 Yang gunned down Reuter at her apartment in Deerfield wearing a disguise and using a silencer. Reuter was shot six times, the first bullet piercing her abdomen. While Yang was always a primary suspect, the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force didn’t get its big break until more then a year later when Yang’s best friend agreed to work with police.

After questioning Christi Paschen on a number of occasions, the Arlington Heights woman eventually admitted to authorities Yang was behind the shooting.

On March 2, 2009 detectives strapped a body wire on Paschen and instructed her to get Yang to talk about the murder. “She thought she was confiding in a friend but she was actually confessing to police,” prosecutor Ari Fisz stated during closing arguments and replayed part of that tape recording.

“I just started emptying the clip,” jurors heard Yang tell Paschen. “I took one last shot in the head, finished her off.”

Yang sat speechless and void of emotion while the verdict was read. During the trial, the defense tried to find fault in the police investigation of the murder and claimed no other suspects were seriously examined. Yang never took the stand. Her sentencing has been set for April 29; she faces a minimum sentence of life in prison. 

A bit of closure, the victim's family said they needed. “For the last 3.5  years, I think I can speak for the family, we’ve all felt like we were kind of in limbo,” Thad Reuter commented. “Things just kind of stopped. Today a huge weight was lifted off our shoulders.” 

Click on the video above to hear reaction on the guilty verdict from Gayle, Reuter’s family and prosecutors.