MORRISON, Ill. — Jurors deliberated Tuesday in the case of a 33-year-old man charged with murder in the death of a northern Illinois man, one of eight people killed in what authorities have described as a two-state killing spree.
Nicholas Sheley has pleaded not guilty in the death of 93-year-old Russell Reed of Sterling in June 2008. He’s already been sentenced to life in prison for the bludgeoning death of 65-year-old Ronald Randall of Galesburg.
Sheley faces another life sentence if he is convicted in Reed’s death. He faces trials in six other deaths that month in Missouri and Illinois.
The jury was given the case after two hours of closing arguments, The (Sterling) Daily Gazette reported.
Prosecutors told jurors Sheley’s drive to get cocaine led him to beat Reed to death.
Defense attorney Jeremy Karlin meanwhile tried to cast doubt on the motives of some of the witnesses who testified against Sheley.
Prosecutors allege Sheley killed Reed in his home on June 23, 2008, then stole his car. Reed’s body was found in the trunk of the car three days later.
Prosecutors rested their case Monday. Sheley then told the judge he wouldn’t testify. He also remained silent at the trial in Randall’s death.
Reed’s son, 68-year-old Lyle Reed, testified that his father hadn’t been seen in three days and when he went to his father’s farm he found blood-like stains on the porch and in the kitchen.
Reed testified he found his father’s glasses and hat on the kitchen counter and then he called police. A forensic pathologist later testified Reed suffered blunt-force injuries to his head, neck and face. His body was found in the trunk of his car.
Sheley’s wife also testified during the trial. Holly Sheley broke down on the stand as she described her husband’s as a violent drunk and user of crack cocaine. She said she tried to get him into treatment.
Holley Sheley also said Reed gave them an old freezer and a wagon to sell before his death.
Investigators allege that Reed was the first person in Sheley’s murder spree. Four days after he was found, the bodies of Brock Branson, 29, Kenneth Ulve, 25, Kilynna Blake, 20, and Blake’s 2-year-old son, Dayan, were found in an apartment in Rock Falls.
That same day, Randall was found behind a Galesburg grocery store and a Sherwood, Ark., couple attending a graduation in Missouri were found behind a gas station in Festus, south of St. Louis. Jill and Tom Estes were both 54.
Sheley was arrested outside a Granite City bar the next day.
According to police, Sheley was acquainted with some of those killed in the Rock Falls apartment, but the rest of the killings appeared to be random — people whose paths crossed with that of a man on the run.