By: Katie Jones
kjones@cbs4qc.com
Everyone from residents to law enforcement to local business owners took the stand Wednesday in Nicholas Sheley's 2nd murder trial. He's already convicted of killing a Galesburg man and is charged with a spree of killings in 2008, including the death of 93-year-old Russell Reed.
From pointing out Sheley's blood stained clothes, to the discovery of Russell Reed's wallet in a funeral home parking lot , to finding his body in a trunk, witnesses are giving their best descriptions of evidence they saw and found in the summer of 2008. Evidence, the prosecution hopes will lead to a guilty verdict.
It was a day full of yes, no's and hardly any objections. First to the stand, Sheley's former acquaintance Megan Nance. She said she'd known Sheley for years when he walked into a Sterling Casey's General store on June 23,2008 covered in what she says was blood but she never called police.
"I didn't think anything of it, a lot of farmers come in with blood on their clothes." Witness Megan Nance said. Same night, different acquaintance, Amber Gonzales told the jury how she, her husband and Sheley smoked cracked together inside her home. Gonzales said when her husband asked about Sheley's bloody clothes he said:
" He said that he just got done killing someone, then laughed and said I'm kidding I just got done fishing all day," Witness Amber Gonzales said.
Six other witnesses were also called up, including a Sterling cop and funeral home owner who found reed's wallet in her parking lot. But some of the most graphic moments came from testimony about finding Russell Reed's body. Crime Scene Investigator Bethe Hughes didn't want to be on camera, but talked about how she saw flies and smelled a decomposing body coming from Reed's car, where authorities found his badly beaten body in the trunk.
Court will pick up again tomorrow morning. We'll continue to bring you full coverage of the trial on air and online.
