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Thread: Ryan Shelby Sentenced to 55 Years in 2009 IN Slaying of Alexis Oesterle

  1. #1
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    Ryan Shelby Sentenced to 55 Years in 2009 IN Slaying of Alexis Oesterle

    Ryan Shelby






    The trial of a Spencer County man accused of killing his stepdaughter is expected to begin today in Warrick County.


    34-year-old Ryan Shelby was arrested in November 2009 in connection with the death of 15-year-old Alexis Oesterle. Her body was found behind a shed in the backyard of the family's home.


    Shelby is charged with murder, obstructing justice, and false informing. if convicted, he could face the death penalty.



    Related Story:


    Stepfather arrested for teen's death (11/09)


    Alexis Oesterle


    http://spencer-perrycounty.14news.co...al-begins-week
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    Shelby jurors hear description of crime scene, cause of death

    Not only did Ryan Shelby confess to killing his stepdaughter, according to testimony in his trial on murder charges Thursday in Warrick Circuit Court, but he told police where to find the murder weapon.

    "In my presence Mr. Shelby stood and demonstrated how he threw the knife into the woods," said Indiana State Police Sgt. Sherri Heichelbech.

    That weapon, however, was never found.

    Shelby, a Rockport, Ind., resident, is charged with murder, false informing and obstruction of justice in the death of 15-year-old Alexis Oesterle. She was found dead on the night of Nov. 2, 2009, behind a yard shed at the house where she lived with Shelby and her mother, Jessica Oesterle. The couple had called police to report that she had been missing since the previous night.

    The trial was moved from Spencer County at the request of defense attorney Anthony Long, who argued Shelby couldn't get a fair trial there. He is arguing that Shelby falsely confessed after investigators wore him down with relentless interrogation.

    Heichelbech testified that she was a crime scene technician examining clothes in the bedroom closet of Shelby's house on Grissom Avenue near Rockport, Ind., on the morning of Nov. 4, 2009, when another trooper told her about the confession.

    Later, she participated in a fruitless search for the weapon in a wooded area next to a rural road, where Shelby had told them he had thrown it, she testified. But it was never found there, even after officers went back the next day and removed the brush from the area.

    Heichelbech's testimony was representative of what jurors heard from prosecution witnesses during the second day of the trial Thursday, which included descriptions of about how Alexis Oesterle died and what the crime scene looked like. Spencer County Prosecutor Kelly Corne did not present any physical evidence linking Shelby to the death except for a drop of blood found on a boot.

    During opening statements Wednesday she told the jury lab tests found the blood belonged to Alexis Oesterle and that Shelby said he wore the boots the night she was killed.

    Jefferson County, Ky., Coroner Barbara Weakley-Jones, who was the medical examiner that performed Alexis Oesterle's autopsy, testified there were wounds created by both something blunt and a sharp-edged object on her body. Two of the blunt force wounds fractured her skull, she said.

    They were injuries that might have been fatal had not a cut to her carotid artery caused her to bleed to death in a matter of minutes, killing her first.

    There was none of the typical wounds indicating that Alexis Oesterle defended herself, Weakley-Jones said. But in cross-examination by Long she said other injuries such as bruises on the elbows and knees and scratches on her back could be interpreted as signs of a fight.

    Heichelbech testified that a large pool of blood was found near the backyard fence but the body was found behind the shed. She said Luminol, a chemical which turns fluorescent on blood, was misted on the grass and indicated a blood path between the two spots. However, Heichelbech also said that there was no blood visible to the eye along the path revealed by the chemical.

    Likewise, three drops of blood sampled in Shelby's bathroom were tiny, she said, and about the size of pinheads. The blood found on one of the many boots in Shelby's closet also was confined to a tiny drop. That was in contrast to the large amount of blood found in the yard, on Alexis Oesterle's clothes and in her hair.

    http://www.courierpress.com/news/201...e---ev_shelby/
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  3. #3
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    Ryan Lee Shelby found guilty of murdering stepdaughter

    A Warrick County jury on Friday found Ryan Lee Shelby guilty of murdering his 15-year-old stepdaughter Alexis Oesterle.

    The jury of six women and six men began deliberating about 12:30 p.m. Friday after attorneys for both sides gave closing arguments on the nearly monthlong trial in Warrick Circuit Court.

    Shelby, 35, was charged with murder, obstruction of justice and two counts of false informing stemming from the Nov. 1, 2009, death in the backyard of his Rockport, Ind. home. The jury found him guilty on all counts.

    After the verdicts were read and the jury polled to affirm them, Shelby removed his glasses and wiped tears from his eyes as he left the courtroom.

    Judge David Kelley set his sentencing for 9 a.m. June 20 and ordered him to continue being held at the Warrick County Jail.

    Although her death occurred in Spencer County the trial was moved to Warrick County to avoid pretrial publicity tainting the jury.

    “I wish I could stand up here and tell you and some sense of why this young lady lost her life. This was an absolutely senseless, impulsive taking of such a young life,” said Spencer County Prosecutor Kelly Corne in her closing statement, with a picture of Alexis’ face projected on the wall behind her.

    She argued during the trial that Shelby called Jessica Oesterle, his then wife and Alexis’ mother, and lured her away from the home with a story about his car breaking down near Reo, Ind. After she left, he returned home and killed Alexis, Corne said, then left again and arrived home shortly after his wife returned.

    Defense attorney Anthony Long argued that Jessica Oesterle was the real killer but that police decided early in the investigation that Shelby was guilty. He told jurors that Indiana State Police botched the investigation and coerced a false confession from Shelby.

    During the trial he attempted to use mental health records of both Jessica and Alexis Oesterle to show that the mother and daughter had a stormier relationship than Jessica Oesterle testified to in court. Under questioning by Long, Jessica Oesterle also admitted she had lied under oath in other court hearings before her daughter’s death.

    “It is easier to prove somebody did something than somebody didn’t,” he said.

    According to court testimony, the couple had lived together several years and married in June 2009, after Jessica Oesterle gave birth to their baby in December 2008. But after she accused him of slamming the baby onto a mattress, he left with the baby in August 2009.

    That prompted Jessica Oesterle to file for an order of protection and divorce, as well as custody the baby, according to testimony.

    Corne told the jury at the start of the trial that Shelby and Alexis had a good relationship until then but that there was tension after Shelby moved back into the house in September 2009. That tension was escalated by the financial pressure of Shelby being laid off from work.

    Among the prosecution’s main evidence in the case was a drop of Alexis’ blood found on one of Shelby’s boots; an empty sheath to a survival-type hunting knife police believed could have been the murder weapon; and video stills from a surveillance camera at a storage facility near the home showing his car coming and going at key times; and a witness who placed a man Alexis said was her dad at the house before her death.

    “Everybody, if they didn’t agree on times, agreed on the order of events and that was established by surveillance cameras,” Corne said after the verdict.

    Corne also argued that Shelby confessed not once, but twice. The first came when he confessed to police during an interrogation on Nov. 4. The second time came during a recorded phone call from the Spencer County Jail between Shelby and his family. Both were played for the jury during the trial.

    In it, according to Corne, after his mother told him about all the people who were supporting him Shelby replied: “Well they probably won’t be after they find out.”

    “Find out what son?” his mom said, according to Corne.

    She said Shelby answered: “When they find out I’m guilty.”

    Long brought in Richard Leo, a San Francisco law professor nationally recognized as an expert on interrogations and false confessions, in an attempt to prove police coerced Shelby’s confession.

    “We made our presentation based on improper police tactics and obviously the jury gave their stamp of approval,” Long said after the trial.

    Leo was not allowed to tell the jury his opinions about the video recording of the Nov. 4, 2009, police interrogation in which Shelby confessed and other police interviews with Shelby. However, in a hearing while the jury wasn’t present in the courtroom, Leo said the interrogations were full of risk factors that have been linked to known cases of false confessions.

    He said those include the length of the interrogation; that Shelby was tired; that police lied to Shelby, including about witnesses and evidence that didn’t exist; exaggerated evidence; implied promises and threats; and that police “contaminated” the confession by feeding him information about the killing while questioning him.

    Among the evidence police lied to Shelby about, according to court testimony, was that they had cellphone evidence pinpointing his exact locations on the night of Alexis’ death.

    He also argued that police overlooked crucial crime scene and forensic evidence, including a kitchen knife left unexamined on a patio table, and what appeared to be blood under one of Alexis’ fingernails and on her hand that was never tested.

    http://www.courierpress.com/news/201...rpppppppppppp/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  4. #4
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    The stepfather of a Rockport girl found slain behind her home is sentenced to 55 years in prison. 35-year old Ryan Shelby could have been given up to 65 years on the murder count. He was also given a year and a half in prison on an obstruction of justice charge and one year each on two counts of false informing. Shelby was given credit for 960 days of time served. The body of 15-year old Alexis Osterle was found behind a shed on the family's property in November of 2009. Shelby was convicted at the end of a weeklong trial. The defense failed to convince jurors that Shelby was forced into confessing that he killed the girl. Defense attorney Anthony Long has indicated he will not appeal the conviction.

    http://www.wiky.com/news/ryan-shelby...-step-daughter

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