Ellie Nesler

Recently, on December 26, 2008, Ellie Nesler passed away from breast cancer. She is well known for killing the child molester who sexually abused her son, William Nesler which was 7 at the time. The man’s name was Daniel Driver a 35 year old a Christian camp counselor. As Nesler was walking towards the witness stand she took out a handgun and shot Driver 5 times in the back of the head and neck. This incident happened in a Northern California courtroom in the Tuolumne County community of Jamestown on April 2, 1993.

            After she shot Driver she didn’t resist arrest, she waited to be escorted out. She was calm and had no reaction. Many people were supporting Nesler’s act, while others were shocked and against it. She had people putting up bumper stickers saying, “good shooting, Ellie.” She tried to plea reason of insanity but instead was convicted of manslaughter instead of the original charge, being murder. She went to prison for 3 years out of the 10 she was sentenced to for good behavior. Shortly after she got out of prison she went back in July 2002 for trying to buy pseudoephedrine tablets from an undercover cop.

            Friends and family say Nesler is known to have a past with drugs. When she killed Driver she was on Meth. Nesler had a hard childhood. She had an alcoholic father who beat her mother as well as Ellie and her sisters. She was molested at the age of three and sexually abused by three other men. As a child, she had thoughts of suicide and after the shooting doctors revealed she had brief reactive psychosis and PTSD. It’s no coincidence that knowing her son was molested was enough to trigger her psychologically. Although she has a troubled childhood, it still wasn’t enough to consider her mentally ill. Her crime was premediated. She made sure there were no children in the courtroom as well as do some research about a police officer she had befriended to make sure he wouldn’t get in trouble for her bringing in the gun. The witnesses this day were not searched for weapons this day. Ellie also waited to see if Driver was going to plea guilty which he did not, and as he walked into the courtroom he smirked at the family which caused even more reason to kill him according to Nesler.

I can understand why Ellie killed Driver for two reasons, the first because she is a mom and I would think any mother would be furious and hurt to the point where they would want revenge on the molester. Second, Ellie’s past must have triggered her to kill Driver even knowing the consequences she was going to have to go through. William Nesler is now serving 25 years to life in prison for the murder of David Davis over an altercation of tools on the Nesler property. I feel like having to be exploited about being molested as a kid and then knowing a lot of people knew about Ellie, it took a toll on William. The absence of his mom probably made him turn onto the path of crime. I think Ellie did what she felt he should have done but at the same time instances like this cannot be allowed because that’s why we have laws set in place. As corrupt and unfair as it may be, this is why people can’t take the law into their own hands.