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Back in October 1997, after Ellie Nesler was released from prison for shooting her son's molester, but before she went back into prison on a meth charge, EXTRA filed a heartwarming story about Ellie:
Ellie Nesler is the mom who went to jail for killing the alleged molester of her son on a California courtroom. Now, she's free and talking about the tough years she spent behind bars, without her family.
"It's like being comatose for four years and then coming back." With a smile, 45-year-old Ellie Nesler talked about her newfound freedom...but beneath the surface lie her tears. From her hometown of Angels' Camp, California, with her daughter by her side, Ellie told EXTRA the story of a family ripped apart...and how she wants to be remembered: "As a mother trying to protect her children...I was just a mother and I got lost in the pain of the system."
It was her little boy Willie, sexually abused at the age of 6, that Ellie was trying to protect. In 1993. She killed her son's alleged molester, Daniel Driver, with five shots from a .25 caliber pistol....For her actions, Ellie was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in prison. She served 4 years of that sentence before getting out last week on a plea bargain....
Ellie told EXTRA what happened on the fateful day when the tragic events happened: "I've got a .25 in my pocket...my little boy is sitting there and he was vomiting, and I kneeled down and I told William....I said, 'No matter what happens, you remember Mama loves you.'...because I didn't know what would happen, but I knew what I was going to do. I walked up and looked at him, and he put his arm up and looked at me, and I shot him...once in the neck, four times in the head, and once in the wall. He just fell over, he was like a little baby...when he fell over, I felt he was dead."
Nesler says it was Driver's arrogance as her arrived at the courthouse that day that made her snap: "Daniel Driver got out...and looked my boy up and down and smirked...and I thought 'I want to kill him too, and I've got the guts to do it.'"
Courage or craziness, Nesler now says it was probably both. But, she no longer maintains, as she did with a smile in the aftermath of the shooting, that Driver deserved it: "I am so sorry to his mother and his family...I have a boy and a daughter and I love them very much and I took someone else's child and I am so sorry for that pain for them." Nesler is also sorry for the pain she put her own children through...her children who are now young adults, Willie at age 16 and Becky at age 12....
Now that she's out, Nesler says it is now *her* time....time for her family, and time for forgiveness. And that she has forgiven Driver: "I have forgiven him, I don't hate him...the way I feel, I took a man's life...If I want God to forgive me and I don't forgive him, then how can I expect him to forgive me?"
As you can imagine, Ellie's medical bills are overwhelming. If you would like to help her out, you may send a check to:
Frank Koelho - Ellie Nesler & Children
C/O ABC Assoc. Services
PO Box 1031
Angel's Camp, CA 95221
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