Sharon Weber gave birth to her second child weeks earlier when her husband was killed in a random robbery not far from their Aurora home.
Nearly 18 years later, Weber finally will face the man accused of shooting her husband in the back of the head before fleeing with his wallet and the $6 it held.
The widow’s testimony will open Tuesday 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 while out gathering flagstones for the couple’s new patio and walkway.
After her husband failed to return home, Sharon Weber loaded her 1-month-old baby and 2-year-old son into the car and set out to find him.
Not far from their home, she discovered her husband lying face up near his van in the muddy field of an abandoned grain silo. The couple’s sons, David and Erik, are now 19 and 17, respectively.
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, and four alternates.
Tenney is serving two life prison terms for the infamous 1993 slaying of dairy heiress Mary Jill Oberweis, and her elderly neighbor, Virginia Johannessen, who lived one-quarter mile away near Aurora.
The women were killed months apart in separate robberies.
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 he 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 plead guilty to being Tenney’s teenage accomplice in all three murders and agreed to provide truthful testimony against him.
The defense team argues Lippert – eligible for parole in September 2035 at age 60 – was the actual shooter. But prosecutors said Tenney was linked to the murder weapon.
His criminal history also includes armed robberies, burglaries, attempted prison escapes and weapon violations in Illinois and Florida.
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 start Tuesday of DuPage County’s trial.
Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services