Judge Allows Dicarded Mail As Evidence In Murder Of Bears' Girlfriend
WAUKEGAN, Ill. (STMW) - Discarded mail and other documents were declared fair evidence Thursday in the murder case against Marni Yang.
The Chicago woman is accused in the Oct. 4, 2007, shooting of Rhoni Reuter in Deerfield. Yang's attorneys, Jeffrey Lerner and William Hedrick, sought to suppress evidence gathered from garbage cans at her Chicago residence. They argued that officers violated her right to privacy and should not have opened U.S. mail.
"The issue before this court is what was Yang doing when she placed those cans out for collection?" Lake County Judge Christopher Stride said. "It's an abandonment. There is no expectation of privacy when you do that. If someone tosses unopened mail, it is my finding that they are relinquishing any right to possess that property."
Investigators performed more than a dozen trash pulls at Yang's residence, starting Oct. 8, 2007, according to testimony from Detective Robert Ogden of the Bannockburn Police Department.
Bank statements, credit card statements and other financial documentation was recovered from the refuse in the four trash cans outside the 5100 block of N. St. Louis St.
Some of the documents were in sealed envelopes, Ogden testified.
Documents seized from the garbage pulls showed that Yang ordered two books about how to make gun silencers, he testified.
At the time of the shooting, Reuter was pregnant with the child of former Chicago Bear Sean Gayle. Yang was indicted on nine counts of first-degree murder and three counts of intentional homicide of an unborn child.
Yang, who police say had a relationship with Gayle, is accused of shooting Reuter seven times, killing her and her unborn child.
Yang's trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 28.
She is due back in court on Jan. 13.
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