Let me start from the beginning so you can get a clear picture of what went down here and what was presented to the "Jury"...[[I prefer to call them something else but will refrain ....for now]] I am not holding back anything...I want the world to know Nick Riley and what an "ANIMAL" he is....I want his name and face embedded is every ones mind that sees Sheldon's pages. This can happen to anyone, none of us are exempt...I found that out the hard way.

Two weeks before Sheldon was murdered he was being stalked...followed all over Bardstown on his Pizza deliveries, and while driving around on his own time. This "ANIMAL" stalking my son was Nick Riley....he made no secret of doing this to Sheldon, it was like he wanted Sheldon to know he was taunting him. Sheldon told a co-worker about Nick following him everywhere and was told he needed to report it to the police and to tell us, his parents. Sheldon did report Nick to the police but did not tell us what was going on. This was so "Sheldon".....never wanting to worry us, always wanting to try and handle his own problems on his own. This was his way of showing us he was a responsible young man, and he was...way beyond his years. The police "asked" Nick if he was following Sheldon all over and Nick lied and said he didn't even know Sheldon. It was only two weeks after this Sheldon brought Joni home one afternoon to meet us.....boy was I surprised....up until now if she didn't play ice hockey he couldn't have cared less about a girl. It was then I was informed that Nick was causing some concern toward the two of them but still I did not have the facts. I had overheard part of a conversation Sheldon had on the phone one afternoon after that, all I heard was..."the uniform does not impress me....that is no way to keep a girl". I had no way of knowing at the time Sheldon was talking to his murderer, Nick. His Dad and I asked him if there was a problem and if we could help...."No Mom, I have taken care of it..." That was Sheldon's response. Three days after this on Feb.28,1998, Saturday afternoon I kissed Shel good-bye as he left for work for the night.....said, "Love ya, see ya tonight", his response was "yep"....he always said that.

That Saturday night after work Shel went to Joni's house, on invite, to watch a video, her parents were home and he had their permission to be there. Little did they know Nick had parked his Mother's van across a wooded area so it would not been be seen....put on a pair of gloves, had a hunting knife with a 5 inch blade in hand and proceeded to walk to Joni's house. Nick testified it was only to vandalize Sheldon's car. He jimmied the car locks so Sheldon would be trapped outside of his car, Nick claims he was trying to get in to to damage the radio system Shel had in his car. Anyone with 1/2 a brain knows you can't open car locks by forcing a hunting knife into them. Not only did he jimmy the locks he scratched the tint all up on one side of the car, destroyed the pin stripping Sheldon had on the windows, and scratched into the paint on the car. Sheldon did his own pin stripping, there was no other car in town like this one, he was so very proud of his car. Nick claimed in court that this was all he intended to do was damage Sheldon's car....but he didn't leave.....instead he did a little window peeking to see what he could see, not only in one window but all widows in the front of the house and finally through the basement windows. Obviously he didn't like what he saw.....he hid in the bushes until Sheldon came outside to get in his car and come home. [[According to Nick, in his testimony, Shel tried one lock and could not get into his car so he went around to the other side of the car to try the other lock when he saw Nick standing in the shadows. Nick said Sheldon asked him what he was doing there...and Nick said "What are YOU doing here?"...Sheldon said HE was invited and asked Nick if he had done this (referring to the damage to his car)? Nick's response was "yes", when Sheldon asked "why?"....Nick replied..."because I can." Then Nick proceeded to make derogatory remarks about Joni to Sheldon....very crude and nasty remarks....he said Sheldon answered him in a smart-alec way and provoked him so he stabbed him.....not once but 30 times!!!!!]] Sheldon was 5'11"...116 pounds....Nick is 6'....180 pounds and had a knife in his hand....did Sheldon "provoke" him....I did not raise a fool for a son!

From the time that Sheldon and Joni said their good-byes, until she went back in the door, turned the light off and heard Sheldon screaming her name, she said, couldn't have been more than a minute or so. On hearing Sheldon's screams Joni and her parents came running outside into the driveway where they saw Nick standing over my sons body with the knife in his hand. Joni's Mom screamed at Nick....called him by name and asked what had he done. Nick took off running across the wooded area toward the van he had hidden. Joni's Dad called the EMT's and the Nelson County Sheriff's Dept. Joni and her Mother tried to help Sheldon, to comfort him until the EMT's arrived. Sheldon had been stabbed 30 times, all to the upper torso and to the head, his brain stem had been severed. Sheldon was laying in the driveway bleeding and there was no response of any kind, my son was dead. Within minutes the EMT and Sheriff's Dept were on the scene it was then the phone rang and Joni had gone inside to answer it.....it was Nick calling from his cell phone....he told Joni "I am sorry...I HAD to do that." Joni was hysterical and was screaming "I hate you...I hate you." She immediately told the police officer that Nick was on the phone.

Nick took off and ran for the Tennessee state line.....making a few stops along the way....one to a friends house, (Buddy Manning, who also refused to testify that he knew Nick had this murder planned days ahead) to gloat about what he had done and another to stop at a stream to try and wash Sheldon's blood from his clothes and the murder weapon. He then got back into the van and proceeded to the Tennessee line. He was in custody by late afternoon March 1,1998, he turned himself into the Bardstown authorities at the request of his mother. The hunting knife and bloody clothes were still in the van along with a note that read...."If I can't have you......no one can." Nick wrote this note to Joni after he brutally murdered my son.

That night, March 1,1998 was the absolute worst night of my entire life. I have never felt so much pain or so much emptiness since the Dr. in the emergency room came through those doors and told us our son was gone. I never knew anything could hurt so bad. David Nicholas Riley murdered my son Sheldon, and he destroyed my family and our lives forever. God gave me that little life to love and to nurture and ONLY God has the right to take that life away from me. This was not God's will, and no one will ever convince me of that....this was the work of Satan himself...DAVID NICHOLAS RILEY!!!!