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The Review June 3, 2014 ROCK ISLAND | THE SHELEY TRIAL

BRUTAL ... HEINOUS‌ GUILTY BY CHRISTI WARREN

ROCK FALLS – Around 11 p.m. on June 28, 2008, Brock Branson, Kilynna Blake, her son, Dayan, and Kenneth Ulve were ambushed and brutally murdered in their Rock Falls apartment, beaten repeatedly with a hammer. Nicholas Sheley was the one who delivered those blows, a Rock Island County jury decided Thursday. Ulve was killed first. Then Sheley waited until Branson and the Blakes got home before ambushing them in their hallway. Kilynna Blake’s cry of “Oh god, don’t! Stop!� ultimately was silenced by Sheley. The 12-person jury deliberated for almost 4 hours before reaching a guilty verdict against the Sterling man. Judge Jeffrey O’Connor set Sheley’s sentencing for Aug. 11. The jury also found the deaths to be “exceptionally brutal and heinous indicative of wanton cruelty.� It is the third time Sheley has been found guilty of murder in what prosecutors say was a drug- and alcohol-induced killing spree that resulted in eight deaths in late June 2008.

After the state rested its case Thursday, defense attorney Jeremy Karlin called no witnesses. And, as in his previous trials, Sheley did not testify in his own defense, which is his right. Sheley, 34, is also accused of killing an Arkansas couple in Festus, Missouri, and is already serving two life sentences for murder in the death of Ronald Randall in Galesburg and the killing of Russell Reed, 93, in Sterling. Evidence showed Sheley had been all over the northwestern corner of the state on the day he killed the four people in Rock Falls. His morning began in Rock Island, where he’d smashed a brick through someone’s car window and then fell asleep in the back seat. He was awakened by the car’s owner and chased out of it, over a hill and across the street, where he broke into a business, Illinois Oil Products, stole a pair of shorts and a work shirt with “A.J.� on the breast, and left his jeans on a desk. That was how Assistant Attorney General Steve Nate began his hour-long closing statement at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, the eighth day of Sheley’s

trial. “Nearly 6 years ago, events were set in motion right here in Rock Island that led to the brutal murder of four innocent people,� Nate said. “By midnight of the 28th, Kilynna Blake, Dayan Blake, Brock Branson, and Kenneth Ulve were all dead, their heads crushed by repeated blows. “Nicholas Sheley did this. Nicholas Sheley is the one responsible for these murders. Nicholas Sheley killed Brock. He killed Ki. He killed Dayan. And he killed Kenny.� DNA analysts throughout the past 2 weeks have testified that Sheley’s DNA was found on a blue work shirt with “A.J.� on the breast, a pair of shorts, and two Newport brand cigarettes, all of which were found in the Rock Falls apartment where the murders occurred. They have testified that his DNA was found all over the blue truck he stole after killing Randall earlier in the evening. They have testified that Sheley’s DNA also was found on the clothing he stole from the Rock Falls apartment and was seen wearing in St. Louis and in Festus.

Photos by Kevin E. Schmidt/Quad-City Times

Jodi Fitzgerald celebrates as the verdict of guilty is read Thursday at the Rock Island County Justice Center in Rock Island. Sheley was found guilty in the June 28, 2008, bludgeoning deaths of Fitzgerald’s brother, Brock Branson, 29, his girlfriend, Kilynna Blake, 20, her 2-year-old son, Dayan, and Kenneth Ulve, 25, in Rock Falls.

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