Trial in deaths of 2 delayed by appeals

FILE - In this Aug. 11, 2014 file photo, Nicholas Sheley is escorted into the Whiteside County courtroom in Morrison, Ill., for sentencing in the murder of four people in a northwest Illinois apartment in the June 2008. Sheley who is serving life sentences for each of six summertime 2008 killings in Illinois next will face trial in Missouri on charges he killed an Arkansas couple during the spree. (AP Photo/The Telegraph, Alex T. Paschal, Pool, File)
FILE - In this Aug. 11, 2014 file photo, Nicholas Sheley is escorted into the Whiteside County courtroom in Morrison, Ill., for sentencing in the murder of four people in a northwest Illinois apartment in the June 2008. Sheley who is serving life sentences for each of six summertime 2008 killings in Illinois next will face trial in Missouri on charges he killed an Arkansas couple during the spree. (AP Photo/The Telegraph, Alex T. Paschal, Pool, File)

Six years after Sherwood couple Tom and Jill Estes were beaten to death in a St. Louis suburb in what police say was part of a two-state killing spree, their accused killer will stand trial.

But when the trial will happen is unclear.

Nicholas Sheley is appealing his murder convictions and life sentences in six other slayings in June 2008. Police said Sheley killed eight victims over two drug and alcohol-fueled days and that the Esteses, both 54, were killed by Sheley outside a hotel in Festus, Mo., a town of about 12,000 people south of St. Louis in Jefferson County.

Steven Jerrell, Jefferson County chief assistant prosecutor, said evidence in the slayings will remain in Illinois while Sheley's multiple appeals are processed. He didn't know how long it might take to get Sheley in a Jefferson County courtroom.

An arrest warrant Jefferson County issued for Sheley after the killings is still outstanding.

"The evidence that we need is evidence that we actually sent over to Illinois and we allowed them to use that for their case," Jerrell said. "We're working with the attorney general's office over there to have it relayed back to us ... It just depends on when they get the court order and release the evidence to us, because many of his cases are still on appeal."

The process has already taken too long for Edward Weber, Jill Estes' brother. He said Friday that he expected several years to pass before Sheley stood trial in the deaths of his sister in brother-in-law but that it's "ridiculous" the trial hasn't happened yet.

"We've waited so long, and we'll have to re-live the whole thing over again when the trial comes up. It's taken six years, and no telling how much longer. It's just not fair to the family members. [Sheley] has got too many rights," he said. "That's just how I feel."

Weber, who lives in Florissant, Mo., another St. Louis suburb, said he'd like Jefferson County prosecutors to pursue the death penalty for Sheley. Jerrell said that it's "far too soon to be making that determination."

"We don't even have custody of Mr. Sheley," Jerrell said.

Festus Police Chief Tim Lewis said his officers responded to a Comfort Inn where the Esteses were staying on June 29, 2008. They found "copious amounts of blood" in the parking lot, he said, and "literally followed the blood trail" to the bodies of the couple behind a dumpster at a gas station less than 2 miles away.

The couple had been in town for a niece's graduation party and were traveling in a red Chevrolet Corvette. Investigators believe Sheley tried to steal the vehicle, Lewis said.

On June 30, police found six other people slain in Illinois, for which Sheley has been convicted of murder and received life sentences.

Russell Reed, 93, was found dead of blunt force trauma in the trunk of a car near Sheley's hometown of Sterling, Ill.

In Rock Falls, just outside Sterling, police found the bodies of Brock Branson, 29; Kenneth Ulvey, 25; Kilynna Blake, 20; and 2-year-old Dayan Blake in an apartment. They were bludgeoned with a hammer.

And about 80 miles south of Sterling, in Galesburg, Ill., police found the body of Ronald Randall, 65, behind a grocery store. He, too, had been beaten to death.

Sheley was arrested July 1 outside a bar in Granite, Ill., north of St. Louis.

Lewis said he believes the nature of the Estes slayings meets aggravating circumstances needed to qualify for the death penalty in Missouri. Among the circumstances is that the killing is especially heinous, atrocious, cruel or depraved, according to Missouri law.

Lewis called the killings "brutal."

"It's one thing to point a gun at somebody across the street and pull the trigger and shoot them. It's another to beat someone to death," he said.

Jerrell said prosecutors will consider aggravating circumstances of the Estes killings before deciding whether Sheley, 35, faces execution.

Illinois, where Sheley is appealing his murder convictions and life sentences, has had a moratorium on the death penalty since 2000. Capital punishment was abolished in the state in 2011.

Weber, 58, said he thinks about his sister and brother-in-law every day. Jill Estes, his big sister, was a teacher at Tolleson Elementary School in Jacksonville. Tom Estes was a longtime employee of Union Pacific Railroad in North Little Rock.

"It's changed my life," Weber said of their deaths. "I miss my sister. We pretty much thought the same and were really close. And I was really close to my brother-in-law."

Other relatives of the Esteses did not respond to interview requests.

Metro on 09/15/2014

Upcoming Events