Marni Yang, who murdered NFL star Shaun Gayle’s pregnant girlfriend is back in court as she argues cops ignored ‘key evidence that points to a different killer’

The woman convicted of killing NFL star Shaun Gayle’s pregnant girlfriend was back in court Monday as she argued police ignored “important evidence pointing to another killer.”

Marni Yang, who is serving two life sentences in Illinois for the 2007 double murder of Rhoni Reuter and her unborn child. Reuter, Gayle’s longtime partner, was seven months pregnant when she was shot in her Deerfield home.

Yang confessed to the killing during a recorded meeting with a friend that prosecutors played during her trial. Later, Yang claimed that she made a confession because she feared the police would charge her teenage son.

Yang, a mother of three, was convicted in 2011. Prosecutors alleged that she was in a relationship with the former Chicago Bear player and was “obsessed” and jealous with Reuter.

During a post-conviction hearing at the Lake County Courthouse, Yang’s attorney, Jed Stone, attempted to prove his client’s innocence. He stated that the state is ignoring newly discovered evidence pointing to another suspect in Reuter’s murder. Yahoo News reported.

Shawn Gayle and his longtime girlfriend Rhoni Reuter, who was seven months pregnant when she was shot in her Deerfield home

Former Chicago Bear player Shaun Gayle (pictured) speaking to reporters after a bond hearing in Lake County Court in 2009

Reuter’s family believes she is guilty and does not want to see a new trial.

In the chilling confession, Yang told her friend: “I took the first shot. I remember screaming because at that moment I realized that we are now at the point of no return.

“All she did was scream until she went down, and when she went down she grabbed her foot and gave me a good kick and got me in the shin.

“It was weak by then. And that was it. I just, I, took one last shot in the head – finished her off. And I left.”

She and Gayle had sex the night before Reuter’s murder. Christi Paschen, the friend to whom Yang made the recorded confession, was able to lead police to the spot where a bracelet belonging to the victim was also buried.

In 2011, a jury took just three hours to convict Yang of murdering Reuter and her unborn child

But Yang’s father says none of it proves his daughter is guilty.

The night before she confessed, he said he told her, “(The police) have been tormenting us, and have been for almost two years; we can’t take it anymore.

“She says, ‘I’m going to get in the car, drive and meet Christi, and make up a story that I committed the murder,’” he told The Chicago Tribune.

He claims he tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn’t listen. The argument was not made during the first trial, although it remains unclear why attorneys did not pursue it.

In 2011, a jury took just three hours to convict Yang of murdering Reuter and her unborn child. Yang served her sentence at the Logan Correctional Facility.

Yang’s children — Andrew, Emily and Brandon Yang — alleged police forced them to make false statements that aired on ABC’s 20/20 in May 2020.

The show also shared ‘new evidence’ that ‘calls into question whether the right person is in jail’ interviews with forensic reconstruction experts who “firmly believe in Yang’s innocence.”

In 2019, Stone filed a post-conviction petition for Yang, which included more than 750 pages of newly released expert reports, images, DNA results and forensic testing of evidence used during the 2011 trial.

Since that filing, Stone says there has been new additional evidence. He also claims that witnesses and experts have provided evidence that Yang is innocent.