{"id":363706,"date":"2010-02-25T19:36:03","date_gmt":"2010-02-26T00:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chicagopressrelease.com\/press-releases\/jury-decides-tenney-eligible-for-death-penalty"},"modified":"2010-02-25T19:36:03","modified_gmt":"2010-02-26T00:36:03","slug":"jury-decides-tenney-eligible-for-death-penalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/363706","title":{"rendered":"Jury decides Tenney eligible for death penalty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Edward Tenney is eligible under the law to receive a death sentence.<\/p>\n

A DuPage County jury deliberated about 15 minutes Thursday before finding prosecutors proved one or more aggravating statutory eligibility factors exist.<\/p>\n

The real fight, in which the defense team tries to save the triple killer’s life, lies ahead.<\/p>\n

Tenney, 50, is serving two life prison terms for the 1993 fatal shootings of dairy heiress Mary Jill Oberweis and 75-year-old Virginia Johannessen, killed 10 months apart in separate robberies in Aurora Township.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, jurors convicted Tenney of a third murder – his first – for opening fire on 24-year-old Jerry Weber late on April 16, 1992, before robbing him of a wallet containing $6, as he tried to free his mired work van from a muddy Aurora field.<\/p>\n

The defendant’s cousin, Donald Lippert, 34, serving an 80-year prison term for his role in all three slayings, testified Thursday he was Tenney’s teenage partner in crime. Lippert described how Tenney struck Johannessen in the head with a hammer after shooting the elderly widow during a home invasion. <\/p>\n

“I looked at her and said I think she’s still alive,” Lippert said. <\/span>“Ed came back over, pulled her head back, checked for a pulse … and whacked her in the head.” <\/p>\n

The cousins were arrested in 1995 for the three murders after police linked them to two guns used in the shootings and robbery proceeds. Lippert confessed, while Tenney still maintains his innocence. <\/p>\n

Barbara Johannessen-Bailey identified her slain mother’s jewelry and an alarm clock that authorities said were recovered in a St. Charles storage locker rented by Lippert’s father. Outside of court, she described how her mother was widowed in 1968 and alone raised two young daughters.<\/p>\n

“She was incredible – absolutely incredible,” Johannessen-Bailey said. “She was tough, and resilient. I don’t know how she did it. I honestly don’t.”<\/p>\n

After Jerry Weber was killed, his 21-year-old widow also was left alone to raise their two sons, then ages 3 weeks old and 2 years old. Sharon Weber said she supports the death penalty for her husband’s murder. <\/p>\n

Prosecutors argued Tenney is eligible for the death penalty because he was at least 18, killed two or more people in separate crimes and that the murders were committed in the commission of another felony – armed robbery.<\/p>\n

The sentencing hearing, before DuPage Circuit Judge Daniel Guerin, is expected to last one week.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Edward Tenney is eligible under the law to receive a death sentence. A DuPage County jury deliberated about 15 minutes Thursday before finding prosecutors proved one or more aggravating statutory eligibility factors exist. The real fight, in which the defense team tries to save the triple killer’s life, lies ahead. Tenney, 50, is serving two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-363706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}