Sheley trial: 'We're not quite there yet'

MORRISON – Will the media be allowed to use video cameras and recording devices to cover Nicholas T. Sheley’s first murder trial in Whiteside County?

Presiding Judge Jeffrey O’Connor said Friday that the decision remains with the state’s highest court.

“It’s all timing at this point,” O’Connor told attorneys Friday. “It all rests in the discretion of the Supreme Court.”

O’Connor’s comments came during a brief case management conference for the 32-year-old Sterling man.

Sheley will be tried March 5 in the beating death of Russell Reed, 93, of rural Sterling, who prosecutors believe is the first person Sheley killed during a two-state killing spree in late June 2008.

He is serving a life sentence for the murder of Ronald Randall, 65, of Galesburg.

He also is charged in the deaths of four Rock Falls people, and an Arkansas couple killed in Festus, Mo.

The Illinois Supreme Court announced Tuesday its approval of a pilot project to allow electronic and audio coverage, known as extended media, at some court proceedings.

Chief judges in each judicial district must apply to the Supreme Court if they want to participate in the pilot program. O’Connor, 14th Judicial Circuit’s chief judge, said he has applied.

As of Friday, the Illinois Supreme Court has not yet approved any circuit court to take part in the experimental program, O’Connor said.

If the court is approved, the media can request to have news cameras or audio devices during the trial.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys may object to the media request, O’Connor said. It is their responsibility to inform their witnesses about the policy, he added.

Right now, the circuit must wait on the Supreme Court to make a decision, he said.

“We’re not there yet,” O’Connor told attorneys.

Sheley has a final pretrial conference Feb. 24 – a hearing on a motion filed by prosecutors to introduce at trial evidence of Sheley’s “prior bad acts.”