Sheley tells judge he can't post $1M bail

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By Terry Hillig | Thursday, July 03, 2008 |

Nicholas T. Sheley, left, is escorted out of the Granite City police department Wednesday, July 2, 2008, in Granite City, Ill. Authorities from two states conducted an exhaustive manhunt for Sheley, who is suspected in eight grisly killings and was was arrested Tuesday evening outside a bar known as a police hangout in Granite City about 10 miles north of St. Louis. (AP Photo)

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EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. — Nicholas T. Sheley made a brief appearance before a judge here on Wednesday to answer charges stemming from one of the eight murders authorities believe he committed in two states in recent days.

Sheley, dressed in green-and-white striped prison garb, spoke little, shedding no new light on what caused his alleged murderous rampage.

He only told the judge he could not post the $1 million bail set for the five criminal charges stemming from the killing of Ronald Randall, 65, of Galesburg in Knox County, Ill.

Knox County authorities were on their way to pick up Sheley, said a Madison County sheriff’s official.

Sheley’s court appearance was conducted over closed-circuit television. He was being held at the Madison County Jail.

Sheley used an ax in at least some of the murders, police sources told the Post-Dispatch Wednesday.

The 28-year-old ex-convict was arrested in Granite City, Ill., on Tuesday, ending an intense, at times frantic manhunt over two states.

His alleged victims — which included a 93-year-old man, a toddler and a couple in Festus, Mo. — appeared to have been killed by blunt force trauma to the head, according to the FBI.

Authorities also believe Sheley had several guns, although they were still searching for those weapons Wednesday, said Illinois State Police sources.

Sheley is from Sterling, Ill., in Whiteside County. Five charges of first degree murder were filed against him in Whiteside County late Tuesday. More charges were expected.

The victims

The 28-year-old ex-convict is suspected of roaming communities as far as 250 miles apart in Illinois and Missouri brutalizing eight people.

In addition to the charges from Randall’s death, whose body was found behind a grocery store, Sheley faces charges in the death of 93-year-old Russell Reed in Sterling, who body was found in the truck of Reed’s vehicle.

Police believe Sheley also killed four people in Rock Falls, Ill.: Brock Branson, 25, and Kenneth Ulve, 29, both of Rock Falls; and Kilynna Blake, 20, and Dayan Blake, 2, both of Cedar City, Utah.

He then allegedly killed Thomas and Jill Estes of Sherwood, Ark., who were staying at a motel in Festus.

During Sheley’s time on the lam, witnesses in Iowa reported seeing him bloody — and in at least one case, police say the killer felt the dead weight of a lifeless body as it was stuffed into a car trunk.

Authorities say evidence linked to Sheley was recovered at each scene.

One question: Why?

One focus of authorities is whether the spree could have been a drug-fueled rampage, the kind of which have made headlines in recent years.

While tightlipped authorities said Wednesday that Sheley did not have drugs on him when he was arrested, they also haven’t ruled it out.

“In this day and age drugs are always involved (but) at this point we’ve got no way of knowing if he was high or not,” said Ron Potthoff, the police chief in Sheley’s hometown of Sterling, where Sheley was well known to law enforcement.

It was widely known that drugs played a central role in Sheley’s life. Less than two years ago, he allegedly stole six bags of cocaine from a drug dealer at knifepoint in Rock Falls — an incident, according to public reports, that led to the fatal beating of an acquaintance of Sheley by two other men.

His uncle has told The Associated Press that Sheley recently struggled with drugs, including crack cocaine, and the FBI said in the midst of the killing spree, Sheley was in Chicago looking to buy drugs.

The FBI and Illinois State Police declined to elaborate.

‘This is not Nick’

Sheley’s wife, Holly, told Sauk Valley Newspapers that her husband was a good man — when he was clean and sober.

“This is not Nick,” she told the newspaper after authorities sought Sheley in connection with the first killing. “Without drugs, without alcohol, Nick is kindhearted. He’s caring. He has respect for people.”

Attorney James Mertes said Sheley was a model client in the years he represented him, including in a pending home invasion case.

“Nick would appear for court in a suit and tie and he was always appropriate and well behaved in court,” Mertes said, declining to answer questions about Sheley’s drug use.

But Potthoff, the Sterling police chief, also wondered whether the alleged June 14 home invasion of the 90-year-old woman could be somehow connected to the subsequent killing spree.

The chief said he has no idea why Sheley did not harm the woman after allegedly forcing his way in her front door, taking money and forcing her to write checks.

Sheley did become “somewhat physical,” police said, but did not cause injuries serious enough to warrant medical attention.

Still, said Potthoff, “I’m not a profiler (but) I think this was a start, maybe, of what was going on,” he said.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is a Lee Enterprises newspaper.)

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