Shaun Gayle Confesses to Sexual Relationship With Alleged Killer

Former Chicago Bears player Shaun Gayle admitted to having sex with the woman accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend the night before the shooting.

For almost two hours the Super Bowl winner was questioned by lawyers on Tuesday during the murder trial of Marni Yang.

“She is right there wearing glasses,” Gayle said when prosecutors asked him to point the defendant out during questioning. Gayle barely looked in Yang’s direction during the rest of his testimony.  

Yang is charged with first-degree murder and intentional homicide of an unborn child in the death of Rhoni Reuter. Authorities say Yang shot and killed Gayle’s pregnant girlfriend in her Deerfield condo back in 2007. Prosecutors claim Yang was also intimate with Gayle and wanted to “eliminate the competition." Yang has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Her lawyers say authorities didn’t properly look into other suspects. 

Gayle said he first met Yang at a 2005 Bears fan convention in Chicago. She was working as a security guard at the event and escorting players around. Gayle said Yang overheard him talking about real estate and offered her services as a realtor. “It started off meeting and talking about real estate deals and in time it would change into a personal relationship,” Gayle told jurors Tuesday.

In 2007 Gayle found out Reuter, his “on and off” girlfriend of 17-years, was pregnant with his child. In late July, Gayle told jurors, “I mentioned to the defendant I was going to be a father,” and said Yang didn’t have much of a response to the statement.

A couple months later on Oct. 3, 2007, the night before Reuter was killed, Gayle said Yang asked to come to his house and discuss a piece of property. “She told me it was a time sensitive matter,” he said. Gayle also said the two had sex.

The following morning, on Oct. 4, Gayle recalled he was getting his haircut when he received a telephone call from a friend who was a television producer at Fox. “You have no idea what’s going on, do you?” he said his friend asked, and then informed Gayle his name was being linked to a rumored shooting in Deerfield.

“I started to panic,” Gayle remembered after not being able to get in touch with Reuter. That’s when Gayle contacted police.

For the next 10 hours, Gayle said he was questioned by officers at the Deerfield Police Department, which included inquiries about his whereabouts that morning. That’s when Gayle said he informed officials about an ex-girlfriend he’d had problems with in the past.

In 2006 Gayle had obtained several emergency orders of protection against a woman named Monika Kurowska after a number of harassing incidents.

On the day of Reuter’s murder, police say a letter was found in her purse from an anonymous person detailing Gayle’s relations with 17 other women. Authorities say similar letters were sent to other women Gayle knew. When officers showed the letter to Gayle, he opened up about Kurowska, because of the broken English used in the writing. “These letters were written the way that she spoke,” he said.

In opening statements the defense claimed authorities solely focused on Marni Yang as the primary suspect in Reuter’s murder and should have investigated other leads as well. But prosecutors state those letters where actually written by Yang. They tried to further highlight her obsession with the Bears star on Tuesday. 

Prosecutors asked Gayle to tell jurors about a trip to Mexico he had planned in March 2007. “It was a promotional trip,” he said and invited Reuter to come. After the trip was publicly promoted Gayle said Yang contacted him.

“(She) said she’d been working a lot and was thinking about taking a vacation, mentioned Mexico,” he said. During later conversations, Gayle said Yang told him she'd decided to go to a resort in Puerto Vallarta. Gayle told jurors Tuesday that Yang picked the same dates Gayle and Reuter were supposed to be at that exact same hotel.

“You didn’t forbid her to travel to the country of Mexico?” defense attorneys asked Gayle during cross-examination.

“I wouldn’t forbid anyone to do anything,” he answered. Gayle said he didn’t discuss his vacation plans with Yang and never saw her while in Puerto Vallarta with Reuter.