Accused spree killer Nicholas Sheley will act as his own attorney in his upcoming murder trial in Whiteside County.
Just one week after being convicted of killing Ronald Randall in Knox County,Nicholas Sheley stood in front of Judge Jeffrey O'Connor and plead not guilty to five other murders.
He also told the judge he will represent himself and does not intend to use a court-appointed public defender when he goes to trial.
Sheley will stand trial first in the death of 93-year old Russel Reed, a trial date set for November 1st. Reed's family said after court, they'll be there every step of the way.
''He killed my 93-year old father- in- law. The biggest and hardest thing for me is to bury someone that was brutally beaten so bad we could not even have an open casket. I couldn't even say goodbye by actually seeing him.'', said Bonnie Reed, the victim's daughter-in law'.
Reed called Sheley's legal maneuvers ''a joke'', and said she's angry about how long it's taken to get the case to trial, but is hanging in there.
''It's just devastating after four years. It's just plain devastating to lose a parent that way, and have to listen to him say he's not guilty when you know he's killed these people this way''.
Sheley is also asking for 11 to 12 thousand documents of evidence that the state says it already furnished to him in the last trial, and is filing several motions on his behalf.
It took a Knox County jury less than an hour to convict him of first degree murder in his first trial.