On the tapes, an emotional, upset Gayle is heard as he speeds toward victim Rhoni Reuter's home. Calls from the news media alerted him that something terrible happened there.
"I'm calling about that shooting in Deerfield," Gayle says in the recording. "Listen, I been getting calls from the media. This is Shaun Gayle... they're trying to say, they're naming me as a suspect?"
At that point, Gayle seemed tense, trying to get clear what's happened to his pregnant girlfriend.
"Rhoni Reuter... is she OK?" Gayle asked.
When he's told she is dead, Gayle begins to cry uncontrollably. He tells the 911 operator he is heading toward Reuter's home, but the dispatcher repeatedly tells him not to go there. Instead, he tells Gayle to head toward the Deerfield Police Department.
"I called her phone... she didn't answer... I gotta call her parents," Gayle said.
At one point, Gayle indicates he's called former Bears teammate Emery Moorehead to help, to meet him at Reuter's home, and that he has received a number of calls from various news organizations.
"Can you give me any more information about what happened?" Gayle said. The dispatcher refused. "I would like to, but I don't want to get you more upset."
Gayle admitted in trial testimony that he had sex with the convicted murderer, Marni Yang, the night before she killed Reuter, 42, in October 2007.
Yang will be sentenced next month.
