ST. LOUIS -- Missouri prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a 35-year-old man accused in the killing of an Arkansas couple. He is already serving life sentences for six slayings in Illinois.
Prosecutors in Jefferson County south of St. Louis filed notice on June 8 of their intent to seek Nicholas Sheley's execution if he's convicted in the Festus, Mo., killings of Jill and Tom Estes of Sherwood.
Police say the Esteses were attacked outside a hotel after leaving a graduation party in 2008. Sheley is accused of loading their bodies into a pickup that belonged to another of his victims and dumping the bodies near a gas station a short distance away.
Sheley is serving six life sentences at a Pontiac prison for a string of killings that began in his Illinois hometown of Sterling. Four victims whose bodies had been bludgeoned with a hammer were found in a Rock Falls apartment. They ranged in ages from 2 to 29. The other victims were a 65-year-old man whose body was found behind a Galesburg grocery store in northwestern Illinois and a 93-year-old man killed in Sterling.
In February, Sheley was extradited to Missouri where, unlike in Illinois, offenders can be sentenced to death.
Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Forrest Wegge declined to comment, as did the assistant prosecutor handling Sheley's case. The June 8 court filing outlining the state's decision cites Sheley's convictions in the six Illinois killings as well as three other aggravating circumstances, including his attempt to rob the Arkansas couple while committing an "outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman" killing.
Public Defender David Kenyon, one of two St. Louis-based attorneys appointed to represent Sheley, declined to comment. An arraignment is scheduled for July 6.
Metro on 06/18/2015