Web Exclusive: "Crime and Punishment", part 4

E-mail this story

Print this story

Share

Note to readers: This is the last 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 - It has become cliche for the neighbors of people charged with heinous acts of violence to stand in front of television cameras and talk about how they never expected the suspect was capable of such a thing because he was quiet, and kept to himself. Nicholas T. Sheley was anything but quiet. Even before the brutal rampage that left two elderly men, a 25-year-old man, two couples and a 2-year-old child dead, Sheley spent years on a rampage of violence and crime in the Sauk Valley. His arrest record reads like whole chapters of the Illinois Criminal Code: Aggravated assault, aggravated battery, aggravated discharge of a firearm, aggravated robbery, armed robbery, criminal damage to government property, domestic abuse, escape, home invasion, possession of cannabis and drug paraphernalia, possession of a weapon by a felon, and the unlawful use firearms. The combined maximum prison terms carried by these charges are enough to keep a man behind bars for multiple lifetimes. Sheley served 3 years of a 6-year prison sentence for robbery. Yet for all the crimes, and all his arrests, Sheley frequently slipped through cracks in the criminal justice system, even as his recent years became marked by drugs and increasingly violent criminal behavior. In the 10 months leading up to the recent killings in Sterling, Rock Falls, Galesburg and Festus, Mo., for which Sheley has either been charged or is the primary suspect, court records show he had developed a pattern of threatening violence against people in their homes for petty cash.

Get out of jail free On August 23, 2007, police say Sheley walked into the Sterling home of Cory E. Olalde - another Sterling man with his own lengthy rap sheet - in the 200 block of Fifth Avenue and fired a gunshot at him. The reasons for the alleged invasion aren't stated in public records. Whiteside County State's Attorney Gary Spencer charged Sheley with home invasion, aggravated discharge of a firearm and possession of a weapon by a felon. He was arrested four days later and tossed in the Whiteside County jail. For the fifth time in 10 years, Sheley faced the possibility of at least a decade in prison; if convicted, he could have gone away for anywhere between 12 and 50 years. Less than five months later, Sheley walked out of jail. On January 11, 2008, Sheley was released on a recognizance bond. No money down. Illinois law requires the suspects held on bond must be brought to trial within 120 days. He had already been held for 140 full days, which included some delays requested by his defense attorney which don't count toward the 120-day limit. If Sheley had stayed another day in county lock-up, attorneys could have demanded that his case be dismissed. Five months later, with the Olalde home invasion charge pending, police contend Sheley struck again. Free to kill Police say that on June 14, Sheley pushed his way into the home of a 90-year-old woman, forced her to write checks and stole cash. However, after 10 days of searching, police couldn't find him They issued a $750,000 warrant for his arrest. The next morning, the family of Russell Reed filed a missing person report. Both the 93-year-old Sterling man and his car were gone. That evening, police found Reed's body stuffed in the trunk of his 2003 Buick Century near the home of Sheley's brother, Joshua. That was June 26. The single homicide investigation became exponentially bigger days later when four bodies were discovered bludgeoned to death in a Rock Falls apartment. By the time the multi-state manhunt ended, three more beaten bodies would be linked to the man who walked out of jail Jan. 11 with nothing more than a signature. Spencer brought murder charges against Sheley for Reed's death last week. By Thursday evening, however, the charges had been removed. Spencer has not accepted or returned any calls seeking comment. Go back to Part 3