Judge to hear new evidence in Marni Yang’s murder conviction

WAUKEGAN, Ill. — A woman serving life in prison for killing the pregnant girlfriend of former Chicago Bears player Sean Gayle is in court Monday.

Lawyers for Marni Yang are presenting DNA evidence thay say proves she is not guilty.

Prosecutors objected to a newly revised affidavit by a forensics expert. They say they’re seeing this for the first time and need to review it.

So the judge sent everyone away until Monday afternoon.

Back in Oct. 2007, Rhoni Reuter, was shot and killed in her Deerfield home. Reuter was pregnant at the time of her murder. Her unborn child also died.

Gayle was the father of that child.

Deerfield police focused in on Yang as the suspect in the case. Yang was Gayle’s realtor and occasional romantic partner.

At the trial, prosecutors told the jury that Yang wanted Reuter out of the way so she and Gayle could be together.

Yang had confessed to the crime during a taped conversation with a friend.

Even though the defense said she lied during that conversation, the jury convicted Yang in 2011.

Yang’s attorney on Monday said this hearing will focus on previously undeveloped crime scene pictures that prove the shooter was taller than 5 feet 10 inches. Yang is about 5-feet-tall.

If the judge agrees with the defense at the end of this hearing, it’s possible that he could order a new trial, or even vacate the conviction and set Yang free.