The shooting of Rhoni Reuter was "an execution," prosecutors told jurors during closing arguments Tuesday, "a well-planned, thought-out execution" by Marni Yang.
Yang is accused of fatally shooting Reuter, former Chicago Bear Shaun Gayle’s pregnant girlfriend. Since the trial began, prosecutors set out to prove Yang was so preoccupied with Gayle that she murdered Reuter on the morning of Oct. 4, 2007.
"The defendant was obsessed with eliminating the competition," Assistant States Attorney Ari Fisz said Tuesday.
With Gayle in the courtroom, prosecutors played the tapes of Yang confessing to the crime. Fisz then took the eight bullets fired in the attack and dropped them one by one into a metal cart.
Yang's attorneys targeted various prosecution theories in their closing arguments and made a case against Gayle.
"This case begins, for good or evil, with Shaun Gayle."
The defense said last week that Yang was a victim too. Attorney William Hedrick told jurors that at the time of the slaying, Gayle was seeing 18 or 19 different women.
Gayle later admitted he had a sexual relationship with Marni Yang and that they had sex the night before the murder.
