Web Exclusive: "Crime and punishment", part 3

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Note to readers: This is the third 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 time accused spree killer Nicholas Sheley turned 27, he was struggling with a host of personal and criminal problems.

Documents filed in Whiteside County Court tell stories about bouts of domestic abuse with his second wife, Holly, and the battles swung both ways.

He roughed her up and landed in court. She flew off the handle and whipped beer bottles at him and his children.

He was using crack cocaine and running with some of the Twin Cities' most notorious criminals.

Already he had done two stints in prison for drug and gun crimes, plus a mugging committed just one month after his first incarceration.

Charges brought in Whiteside County against Sheley between the ages of 24 and 27 ranged from smashing squad car windows while under arrest to armed robberies.

Sheley had been unable to straighten himself out despite several passes issued by the Whiteside County State's Attorney's office on more than a dozen felony offenses.

Drug deal gone bad

Court documents show Nicholas Sheley set in motion a botched crack cocaine deal that ended in the beating death of a Rock Falls man in his own back yard at the hands of a Chicago-area drug dealer.

On a Saturday afternoon - November 26, 2006 - Sheley was drinking at a bar when he called Douglas Keefer. The two decided to get high at Keefer's 12th Avenue home in Rock Falls, according to testimony from then-Rock Falls Detective Sgt. Jay Koett.

Keefer hopped in a car and picked Sheley up.

Jeffrey Hager, a mutual friend, was at Keefer's house when Sheley called from the bar. Hager became Detective Koett's primary source of information.

Koett testified that the two men decided to call a dealer, known as "T", about 3:30 that afternoon. "T" delivered the drugs and the two men got high.

About four hours later, Sheley decided he wanted more, but he didn't want to pay for it.

He left Keefer's house and came back with a 12-inch butcher knife tucked in his waist band. He told Keefer to order $100 worth of crack then waited in Keefer's bedroom with Hager.

While Sheley and Hager waited for the drugs to be delivered, Sheley asked Hager, "Are you ready to get down?"

Sheley pulled the knife and asked, "For or against?"

Hager said he was "against," and the response seemed to anger Sheley, who put the blade to Keefer's neck and said, "I'm going to cut somebody's throat tonight."

At some point, Keefer asked Sheley, "You do have the hundred dollars, don't you?"

Sheley held up the knife and said, "This is my hundred dollars," Koett testified.

When drug dealer Christopher Cornell arrived with six bags of crack cocaine, Sheley put the knife to Cornell's neck, stole the drugs and fled.

Without his drugs or his money in hand, Cornell argued with Keefer over who was responsible.

An associate of Cornell, Ivan Johnson, arrived on the scene with his uncle, Daniel Reid, and joined in the dispute.

Johnson told Keefer, "Don't play about our money," and started beating on Keefer.

Keefer died from the merciless assault.

His autopsy showed Keefer's jaw broken in three places, his lungs filled with blood, blood on his brain, and several bruises on his head and neck inflicted by a blunt weapon.

Off the hook

Johnson took the fall for Keefer's murder and is serving 35 years in prison.

Despite his role in the events that led to Keefer's death, the case against Sheley hit a dead end.

Spencer filed two class X and one class 3 felony counts against Sheley in relation to murder: home invasion, armed robbery and aggravated battery.

Rock Falls Police arrested Sheley on Nov. 30 - four days after Keefer died from internal bleeding - and Sheley found him self in familiar surroundings - inside Whiteside County jail facing serious charged.

Whiteside County Judge John Hauptman set bond at $250,000.

Four days later, Sheley posted the 10 percent necessary to post bail and walk.

As investigation into Keefer's murder progressed, the witness list grew.

Thirteen officers from the Rock Falls and Illinois State Police departments were poised to take the stand, plus two forensics experts, five co-defendants and 20 other witnesses.

Evidence against Sheley included a series of police-recorded interviews with people who had either been to Keefer's house on Nov. 26 or had interacted with the trio of Chicago-area men related to the botched deal - plus phone records, photos and police reports.

By mid-February 2007, Spencer had nearly everything he needed to put Sheley away for anywhere between 13 and 63 years in relation to Keefer's murder.

Then, in April, the charges were dropped. In Court documents Spencer explained the dismissal of charged by saying key witness Christopher Cornell was "unavailable to testify." In an interview with Sauk Valley Newspapers that published April 14, 2007, Spencer said the charges would be refiled when the witness became available.

The charges never were refiled.

Cornell was being held at the Whiteside County jail on a $1 million bond facing murder charges at the time the case against Sheley was dismissed.

Although Spencer attempted to prosecute Cornell for Keefer's murder, Johnson testified at his own trial that Cornell never touched Keefer.

As a result, charges against Cornell were reduced from murder down to a class 4 felony for mob action.

On June 25, Cornell was sentenced to serve six years for the crime. The hearing took place less than 24 hours of the time police believe Nicholas Sheley killed Russell Reed, 93, of Sterling.

It has now been four days since police arrested Sheley outside a bar in Granite City.

Spencer has not returned several calls seeking comment about Sheley's past or the string of eight brutal murders police believe Sheley committed during seven days in Sterling, Rock Falls, Galesburg and Festus, Mo.

Go back to part 2