Man sought in beating death had been molested as a child

William Nesler had been jailed two months for beating the disabled man.
SONORA, Calif. (AP) -- William Nesler was once known as a young rape victim whose vigilante mother walked into a courtroom and shot his accused molester five times in the head 11 years ago.
Since the acts that led to that day, Nesler's life has never been the same.
He has been in jail nearly 20 times in the past five years, in cases ranging from complaints about his Rottweiler to robbery and drug charges.
And now he is wanted on a murder charge in the beating death of a disabled neighbor, just an hour after completing a jail sentence for attacking the same man in a dispute over tools.
Authorities do not know where he is hiding, but they consider him armed and dangerous.
Although they recognize that his upbringing has played a role in his troubles, friends and family members said they were still surprised by the murder allegations.
"He was a great kid," said Sacramento bounty hunter Leonard Padilla, a family friend. "I would never have believed it would come to something like this, though a lot of times there's a progression of activity."
When Nesler was young, his parents left the faded gold rush towns of the Sierra Nevada foothills in the hopes of striking it rich by mining in Africa, family members said. The couple eventually split, and Ellie Nesler returned with William -- known as Willie -- and his sister to California.
Molested at camp
When Willie was 6 or 7, he allegedly was molested by Daniel Driver at a Christian camp. He said he didn't tell anyone for nearly a year because Driver had threatened to kill his family.
After two years on the lam, Driver was arrested and brought to court April 2, 1993, for a hearing on whether he would face trial on charges of molesting Nesler and three other boys.
Ellie Nesler said her son couldn't testify. He was vomiting. She feared the twice-convicted molester would walk free.
During a recess, she pulled a Raven .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol from the purse of her other sister, Jan Martinez, and shot Driver in the head.
"He deserved to die," she told police. "Maybe I'm not God, but I'll tell you what -- I'm the closest damn thing to it for all the other little boys."
She later said, "My little boy can hold his head up now. He doesn't have to be afraid of Danny."
During Ellie Nesler's trial, Martinez testified that the abuse changed her nephew from "a very beautiful little kid ... into a mean little brat." By age 11, he had changed schools three times and was spiteful and angry.
Ellie Nesler, derided by some for taking the law into her own hands and praised by others for exacting her own justice, served only three years of a 10-year manslaughter sentence when a court overturned the conviction due to juror misconduct. She is now in a California prison for charges related to manufacturing methamphetamine.
What happened
Authorities say William Nesler has been chronically unemployed in recent years. Recently, Nesler had helped clean up property in this mountainous area of California. David Davis, 45, disabled from a neck injury, was also hired to help clear the property, according to Davis' mother, Rita Brown.
Trouble came in late June when Davis accused Nesler of stealing his tools. Nesler attacked Davis and started beating him, police said.
"He's lucky I didn't kill him," Nesler allegedly told police.
Nesler pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced to two months in jail. He was released at 4 a.m. Sunday, and the beating happened about an hour later.
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