Friend Of Rhoni Reuter Believes Real Killer Remains At Large

CHICAGO — A longtime close friend of the murdered pregnant girlfriend of a former Chicago Bears player said Tuesday she believes the person convicted of her killing is innocent and her true killer remains at large.

Michelle Ammentorp said she met Rhoni Reuter in 1985 when both worked as waitresses at the Iowa Greyhound Park in Dubuque as a summer job during college. Ammentorp said Reuter was like a sister to her. Reuter was one of Ammentorp's three bridesmaids at her wedding, and the other two were her actual sisters.

Their friendship lasted 17 years. It came to an abrupt end on Oct. 7, 2007, after Reuter was found fatally shot inside her Deerfield condo. At the time of her death, the 42-year-old Potosi, Wisconsin, native was seven months pregnant with the daughter of retired NFL safety Shaun Gayle, a member of the 1985 Super Bowl-winning Bears team.

The two had been dating for more than 17 years, but were not exclusive, according to testimony presented at the 2011 murder trial of Marni Yang, another of Gayle's lovers. Now 51, Yang is serving a pair of life sentences in state prison for the murder of Reuter and her unborn child.

"With Shaun, I listened. I was the girlfriend that got the phone calls," Ammentorp said. "'He dumped me, cry, cry, cry.' 'This is a good thing, Rhoni. This is a good thing!' 'He called, he's forgiven me.' It was that on-off thing through that relationship."

Ammentorp said she "knew the mental and psychological abuse that had been going on for 17 years" and that Reuter's pregnancy was unplanned. Jurors were told Reuter was shot six times and her unborn child was struck twice.

At a Nov. 19 press conference in Chicago convened by Yang's defense team, Ammentorp said she was initially skeptical about whether Yang really killed Reuter out of a romantic rivalry, as prosecutors alleged, but could not understand why Yang would have confessed to the murder.

"You know I have to say I hated Marni Yang for 10 years because I believed she was the reason why Ronnie and Skylar were taken from us. During the initial trial, I always felt like there were pieces missing. I had doubts. But Marni confessed. So I pushed all of those doubts aside and it gave us a moment of closure."

Yang alleges the confession was fabricated in response to her fear that police would arrest her son and charge him with Reuter's killing. It was recorded at a Denny's in Arlington Heights by Yang's friend Christy Paschen, who was wearing a microphone on behalf of the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force. According to an affidavit filed last week in support of Yang's post-conviction petition for actual innocence, detectives also threatened to charge Paschen with the murder unless she agreed to wear a wire.

Jed Stone, Yang's attorney, said key pieces of exculpatory evidence were withheld from the defense and never presented to the jury. Authorities were aware Yang said she planned to falsely confess — telling Paschen she planned to "start making [expletive] up" in a wiretapped conversation. Police also had reason to believe Yang noticed the recording device Paschen was wearing before admitting to the murder, though jurors were led to believe the recorded confession was made surreptitiously.

"A trial of a criminal case is not hide and go seek. That's an abortion of justice," Stone said. "In this case, the prosecutors and the police hid from the defense the fact that Marni knew that Ms. Paschen was wearing a wire. They hid from the defense the fact that Marni had told her parents that she was going to lie to Paschen ... and this whole centerpiece of the prosecution's case is nothing more than what they knew it to be — a series of lies that, by the way, do not match the immutable scientific evidence, the facts of the case — We know that it's a series of lies, told by Marni to protect her son. The state knew it. They never told the defense this information, and justice was ill-served."

Prosecutors also withheld crime scene photos that establish "to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty that Marni Yang did not fire the shots that killed Rhoni Reuter," former FBI agent John Larsen, director of Glen Ellyn-based Larsen Forensics & Associates, said in another sworn statement filed last week. His expert report determined Reuter's killer was significantly taller than her. Yang is 9 inches shorter than Reuter.

Ammentorp cited the ballistics report as part of an "abundance of information and evidence" that convinced her that Yang did not kill her friend.

"I'm here today for Ronnie and Skylar. They deserve the truth to come out. I implore the Lake County law enforcement officials to please re-open this case. The real killer is out there," she said. "That person needs to be held accountable."

When first contacted by Yang's defense team, Ammentorp said she resisted, hanging up the phone. But over time, the doubts resurface, and when they called again to let her know the 689-page petition and exhibits would soon be filed one way or another, Ammentorp said she decided to take a look for herself, initially hoping she could convince herself of Yang's guilt.

"I was going to punch holes in this case. I felt like it was my responsibility to protect the Reuter family, I did not want them to go through this again," she said. "The new evidence is overwhelming and heartbreaking. You know, the investigators who initially did this they made mistakes, but we're all human. And I didn't want Marni to get off on a technicality, and I wasn’t going to let that happen. But then when you see lack of ethics being used by the Lake County [Major Crimes Task Force], you see prime suspects that were purposely ignored, you see evidence that was purposely kept from the defense. That's appalling. Lake County, this is your county, and you deserve to know the truth. This is your justice system. You have the right to demand the truth."

Yang's daughter, Emily Yang, told reporters last month the lead prosecutor on the case, Patricia Fix, a Lake County Circuit Judge since 2012, threatened her if she did not testify falsely that her mother had written letters to Gayle's 16 other romantic partners.

Stone said the former state's attorney suborned perjury in the case. Her junior prosecutor on the case, Ari Fisz, is also now a judge in Lake County Circuit Court. The defense attorney did not directly implicate him any misconduct. Fix is prohibited from responding to the allegations by the Illinois Judicial Conduct Code because they concern a pending case.

"Since she became a judge I have routinely taken substitutions from her because I knew her when she was a prosecutor ... I do have concerns about trying cases in Pat Fix's courtroom, and have since she took an oath to become a judge. I don't like practicing in her courtroom, period. Ari Fisz is a wonderful guy. He is. He's a good, decent guy," Stone said. "I would be surprised if Ari Fisz were implicated in this kind of chicanery. I wasn’t surprised when a witness told me, 'Pat Fix told me she didn't care what the truth was she wanted me to tell this lie and threatened me and so I lied.' Lawyers aren’t supposed to do that ... it's unethical, it's morally wrong and it's illegal to suborn perjury."

A spokesperson for the office of Lake County State's Attorney Mike Nerheim earlier declined to comment on the case, citing pending litigation. Former State's Attorney Michael Waller held the post at the time of Yang's trial and conviction, but it appears Nerheim's office is prepared to defend the integrity of the verdict.

Earlier:
Police, Prosecutor Misconduct Led To Murder Conviction: Petition
Convicted Murderer Of Ex-Bear's Girlfriend, Baby Innocent: Lawyer
Marni Yang To Spend Life in Prison for Murder

Stone, who has represented several people whose convictions in Lake County have been overturned on appeal, was hired by Yang's father, Larry Merar, three years ago to prepare the post-conviction petition filed last month.

On Tuesday, Lake County Circuit Judge Christopher Stride announced he plans to issue a ruling on whether to move forward with Yang's petition or take any other action at a Dec. 17 post-conviction status hearing.

Ammentorp said she had her own idea about who was likely to have killed her friend but she was keeping it to herself.

"It is not my job to speculate, that would be unethical," she said. "That is Lake County's responsibility, and I believe that they will step forward and they will do the right thing."

Read the 30-page post-conviction petition or download complete 678-page petition and exhibits

Earlier:
Jury Convicts Marni Yang Of Murder In Killing Of Rhoni Reuter
Prosecutors Paint Ex-Bear Player's Lover as Cold-Blooded Killer
Neighbors of Deerfield Murder Victim Testify in Yang Trial