Web Exclusive: Crime and punishment, part 2

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Note to readers: This is the second in a four-part series of stories examining the criminal past of accused spree killer Nicholas Sheley. Despite his history of violent crimes, criminal charges against him often were reduced or dropped entirely - sometimes for no apparent reason. State's Attorney Gary Spencer, who is responsible for criminal prosecution in Whiteside County, did not respond to phone calls seeking comment on this story.

STERLING - By the age of 23, Nicholas Sheley had served two stints in prison. In late 1999, he spent split 4 months between the Whiteside County jail and the state Department of Corrections for marijuana and gun crimes he had committed a month before his 18th birthday. Then, at 20 years old - barely a month out of prison and still on parole for his earlier crimes - Sheley mugged two Sterling men for $95 in cash and threatened to use a handgun. On the recommendation of Whiteside County State's Attorney Gary Spencer, and now-deceased Judge Dan Dunagan, Sheley went to a prison-run boot camp - a program reserved for non-violent offenders. His lucky break didn't last long. After he was in boot camp for just three weeks, the state decided Sheley needed to go to the Shawnee Correctional Center, a prison geared toward rehabilitation and with the same high-medium security designation as the Dixon Correctional Center. Sheley spent 7 months in Shawnee before being transferred to Menard, the notorious high-medium and maximum-security prison that is home to the Condemned Unit known as Death Row. A Department of Corrections spokesman would not say what Sheley did to lose his place in boot camp, or get himself shipped to Menard. The state has a policy of not discussing the behavior of former inmates who are no longer in the system. Two weeks before his 24th birthday, Sheley was released from prison on July 18, 2003. It was the last time he would see the inside of a prison cell, but not the last time he would find himself on the wrong side of the law. The next few years would be marked by several more felony charges for increasingly violent crimes and domestic abuse. Hammers and glass Two months into parole, police say, Sheley and his brother Joshua squared off with Charles A. Holbrook, 31, outside Holbrook's apartment in the 500 block of Sixth Avenue in Sterling. According to police statements, the three men tussled over a hammer, which Sheley used to bludgeon Holbrook's head and body. In that early morning, on the day of the fight, Sheley already had had one run-in with Sterling Police. At 6:45 a.m., police say, he knocked out the right rear window of a Sterling squad car while he was under arrest, and then he fled. Court documents do not reveal the reason for the attempted arrest; however, he was picked up again 2 days later, and prosecutors charged Sheley with escape and criminal damage to government property. He was now facing 4 to 10 years in prison. The next week, prosecutors slapped class 3 felony charges of aggravated battery on all three men involved in the fight. Sheley was now facing 6 to 15 years, but none of the charges stuck. Between the two cases, the witness list to prosecute Nicholas Sheley included nine Sterling Police officers, two victims of the alleged bludgeoning, nine other witnesses, plus unnamed emergency room staff of CGH Hospital. Sheley and Holbrook ended up pleading guilty to one misdemeanor each: Sheley for yelling obscenities in the hospital waiting room, Holbrook for threatening a fight. Prosecutors dismissed all charges against Joshua Sheley. Flirting with disaster By November 2003, Sheley was a free man - he was out on the street, and single after his wife had divorced him while he was in prison. He also wasn't paying the court fees he owed from a drunken driving conviction and traffic stop from before he went to prison. Within 6 months, he was back in court to schedule payments. For a while, according to court records, Sheley kept his nose fairly clean. Then, in April 2005 he received probation for roughing up his girlfriend and future wife. Within a month he was busted for taking illegal drugs while on probation. Within another month he was busted for drinking drugs while on probation. Before he could be processed for those violations, the girlfriend filed another complaint of domestic abuse. That case was eventually dismissed because police could find no probable cause to believe a crime had been committed. In the end, for a he served a total of 19 days in jail.

Up next: A drug deal with deadly consequences.

[Go to Part 1 in this Web Exclusive]