Hours after her husband left to gather flagstones for a new garden, Sharon Weber awoke to find he still hadn’t returned to their Aurora home.
She loaded the couple’s two sons, a 2-year-old and a 3-week-old baby, into the car and set out to find him.
Nearly 18 years later, the heartbreak of what she discovered early that morning filled a DuPage County courtroom Tuesday as Weber relived the moment she found her husband’s bullet-ridden body lying off the roadway not far from their home. “He was lying in the mud,” she said through tears. “He had blood on his face. I yelled out to him and he did not answer me. So I turned around and drove. I drove to the nearest pay phone I could find.”
The widow’s emotional testimony opened the long-awaited trial of Edward L. Tenney, a twice-convicted killer serving life prison terms who faces a possible death sentence if convicted in DuPage County of a third slaying.
Jerry D. Weber, a 24-year-old carpet installer, was shot four times early April 17, 1992, in Aurora Township after his van became stuck in mud near an abandoned grain silo at Sheffer and Vaughn roads, which is now the Stonebridge subdivision and golf course.
Weber was robbed of his wallet, and the $6 it contained. The couple’s sons, David and Erik, are now 19 and 17. Sharon Weber, just 21 when she lost her husband, shot Tenney a cold glare after her 30-minute testimony, as she exited the courtroom.
She identified photos of her husband, whom she married in 1989, in life, as well as in death.
Tenney, 50, maintains his innocence.
A hard-fought battle in DuPage Circuit Judge Daniel Guerin’s courtroom is anticipated. Lawyers spent three weeks assembling the six-man, six-woman jury.
If members convict Tenney, they will be asked in the trial’s next two phases to determine if he is eligible for a death sentence based on certain statutory guidelines, and then whether capital punishment is the appropriate sentence.
Tenney is serving two life prison terms for the 1993 slaying of dairy heiress Mary Jill Oberweis and her elderly neighbor, Virginia Johannessen, killed months apart in separate robberies in Aurora Township.
Four other men were wrongly accused in Kane County of the Johannessen slaying.
Three were acquitted. One man from Bellwood was sentenced to a 60-year prison term, but was set free in 1995 after Tenney and his cousin Donald Lippert were indicted.
Lippert, 34, formerly of Woodridge, has been serving a lengthy term since 1996 after he pleaded guilty to being Tenney’s teenage accomplice in all three murders and is expected to be one of the prosecution’s star witnesses, along with his brother and father – all of whom led police to the murder weapon and Jerry Weber’s wallet that they said Tenney had in his possession.
“The evidence will show this wasn’t just a murder. This was an execution,” prosecutor Robert Berlin said in his opening statement. “It’s been nearly 18 years. A lot of things have changed. People get older. Memories fade. But some things remain the same. The truth does not change and the will of the people to do justice doesn’t change.”
The defense team argues Donald Lippert – eligible for parole in September 2035 at age 60 – is far from a reliable witness and that prosecutors lack enough evidence to convict Tenney.
“You’re going to see some incredible testimony from some really incredible people,” defense attorney Mark Kowalczyk said. “Watch very carefully where the state’s evidence comes from and how it ties to Edward Tenney. You’re going to be amazed.”
Tenney’s criminal history includes armed robberies, burglaries, attempted prison escapes and weapon violations in Illinois and Florida. He also has a long history of emotional and personality disorders, as well as substance abuse, according to court records.
Tenney once faced death by lethal injection for the Johannessen murder. His conviction, though, was overturned in 2002 based on a legal trial error.
He was retried, convicted again and, in 2008, sentenced to a life prison term – clearing the way for the trial.
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