Man remembered as victim is now a fugitive
11 years after mother shot alleged molester, he's a murder suspect
08:43 PM CDT on Friday, July 30, 2004
SONORA, Calif. – William Nesler was once known as a young rape victim whose vigilante mother walked into a courtroom and shot his accused molester five times in the head 11 years ago.
Since the acts that led to that day, Mr. Nesler's life has never been the same, friends and family members say.
He has been in jail nearly 20 times in the last five years, in cases ranging from complaints about his Rottweiler to robbery and drug charges. And now he is wanted on charges of beating a disabled neighbor to death, just an hour after completing a jail sentence for attacking the same man in a dispute over tools. Authorities do not know where he is hiding, but they consider him armed and dangerous.
Although they recognize that his upbringing has played a role in his troubles, friends and family members said they were still surprised by the murder allegations.
"He was a great kid," said Sacramento bounty hunter Leonard Padilla, a family friend. "I would never have believed it would come to something like this, though a lot of times there's a progression of activity."
When Mr. Nesler was young, his parents left the faded gold rush towns of the Sierra Nevada foothills in the hopes of striking it rich by mining in Africa, family members said. The couple eventually split and Ellie Nesler returned to California with Mr. Nesler – known as Willie – and his sister.
When Mr. Nesler was 6 or 7 years old, he allegedly was molested by Daniel Driver at a Christian camp. He reportedly didn't tell anyone for nearly a year because Mr. Driver had threatened to kill his family.
After two years on the lam, Mr. Driver was arrested and brought to court on April 2, 1993, for a hearing on whether he would face trial on charges of molesting Mr. Nesler and three other boys.
Ms. Nesler said her son couldn't testify. He was vomiting. She feared the twice-convicted molester would walk free.
During a recess, she pulled a Raven .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol from the purse of her other sister, Jan Martinez, and shot Mr. Driver in the head.
"He deserved to die," she told police. "Maybe I'm not God, but I'll tell you what – I'm the closest damn thing to it for all the other little boys."
She later said, "My little boy can hold his head up now. He doesn't have to be afraid of Danny."
During Ms. Nesler's trial, Ms. Martinez testified that the abuse changed her nephew from "a very beautiful little kid ... into a mean little brat." By age 11, he had changed schools three times and was spiteful and angry.
Ms. Nesler, derided by some for taking the law into her own hands and praised by others for exacting her own justice, served only three years of a 10-year manslaughter sentence when a court overturned the conviction due to juror misconduct. She is now in a California prison for charges related to manufacturing methamphetamine.
Authorities say Mr. Nesler has been chronically unemployed in recent years. Cory Njirich said his father gave Mr. Nesler a little work helping tear down part of a former gravel plant next door to where Mr. Nesler lived. Although he stood 6-foot-2, weighed 225 pounds and was covered with tattoos of comic book characters, he was mostly just a shy observer who seemed out of place.
"He acted like a little kid. He'd come up and watch us," Cory Njirich said. "My dad always said he was like a 12-year-old in a 25-year-old body."
Recently, Mr. Nesler had helped clean up his family's property in this mountainous area of California. David Davis, 45, disabled from a neck injury while working in oil fields in Wyoming, was hired to help clear the property, which had turned into a squatter's camp, according to Mr. Davis' mother, Rita Brown.
Trouble came in late June when Mr. Davis accused Mr. Nesler of stealing his tools. Mr. Nesler attacked Mr. Davis and started beating him, police said.
"He's lucky I didn't kill him," Mr. Nesler allegedly told police.
Mr. Nesler pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced to two months in jail. He was released at 4 a.m. Sunday, and the alleged beating happened about an hour later.
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