A barefoot Samson Shelton, dressed in a white hospital gown, left a Belleville hospital Wednesday bound for the St. Clair County Jail, where he was booked and charged with six felony battery counts.
New allegations say Shelton, 27, a former high school teacher already facing an attempted murder charge from a year ago, kicked, punched and spit on law enforcement and emergency responders after what may have been a suicide attempt on Tuesday morning.
Criminal charges filed Wednesday allege that Shelton kicked a sheriff’s deputy in the shin, another deputy in the groin, and punched Lt. Steve Johnson, the department’s lead investigator, in the abdomen.
The charges allege Shelton was in a “semi-conscious state and in … need of medical assistance” when responders arrived. While receiving medical treatment, a criminal complaint states, Shelton regained consciousness and lashed out with a series of attacks.
One year ago, Ashley Reeves, then 17, was reported missing. During a frantic search and after hours of questioning, Shelton led sheriff’s investigators to her nearly lifeless body in a park in Belleville. That night, Johnson got a confession. He was in Shelton’s home Tuesday morning when the alleged brawl happened.
Clyde Kuehn, Shelton’s defense attorney, said Shelton’s home had been swarmed by sheriff’s deputies who had a special interest in the case.
Kuehn vowed to fight all charges against his client: “In my view, this incident is reflective of how Sam has been mentally tortured by pretrial publicity in the media and on the Internet.”
Shelton will appear before Circuit Judge Milton Wharton on Wednesday as prosecutors seek to revoke his bond. He was released last year after his family posted $80,000 cash bond related to the attempted murder charge involving Reeves.
Shelton is now segregated from the general jail population and is wearing a paper gown — not the typical orange jumpsuits worn by prisoners.
“He is in a suicide prevention cell,” said Capt. Thomas Knapp, the St. Clair County jail superintendent.
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