Before release from prison, ex-Freeburg teacher was removed from work release center
When a former Freeburg High School teacher who had been serving time for nearly strangling a teenager to death in 2006 walked out of a state prison on Monday, it wasn’t his first taste of freedom.
Samson “Sam” Shelton, who told investigators he choked the teenager with a belt and left her barely alive in the woods of a Belleville park, was allowed to live in an Illinois Department of Corrections work release center in Peoria last year for about two weeks, according to the agency.
Shelton’s assault on then 17-year-old Ashley Reeves and his subsequent guilty plea to attempted first-degree murder have been featured in multiple nationally televised shows.
Shelton, 44, was allowed to live in the Peoria Adult Transition Center from March 29, 2023, to April 13, 2023, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
A spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Corrections said in a statement that the agency “cannot provide” the reasons why Shelton was allowed to move into the work release center at 607-613 N. Main St. in Peoria or why he was required to return to prison.
The Peoria center has 248 beds in dormitory-style rooms and is located on a bus route near restaurants, the Peoria Civic Center and several hotels that employ residents of the work release center, according to the Department of Corrections’ website.
When Shelton was released from prison after serving 17 years on Monday, he was at the Illinois River Correctional Center in Canton, which is southwest of Peoria.
Shelton, who taught driver’s education and had a side job as a professional wrestler dubbed “The Teacher,” was given a 20-year prison sentence on the attempted murder charge on June 15, 2007, by then- St. Clair County Circuit Judge Milton Wharton.
Wharton also ordered that Shelton serve at least 85% of the 20-year sentence before he could be released on parole, according to St. Clair County court records.
This court order also gave Shelton credit for 53 days he served in the St. Clair County Jail before he was sent to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
The Department of Corrections said Shelton had met the requirements of Wharton’s order.
Shelton is scheduled to go off parole on April 22, 2027, according to state Department of Corrections records.
Neither Shelton nor Reeves could be reached for comment this week.
The Department of Corrections also said that Shelton’s release was not moved up because of a new state law that allows some inmates to get out of prison earlier than originally scheduled. The law, known as House Bill 3026, permitted the early release of 409 inmates between Jan. 1 and March 21, according to an April 16 News-Democrat article based on Illinois Department of Corrections statistics.
House Bill 3026 requires the Department of Corrections to recalculate the credit inmates have earned to reduce their time in prison. It went into effect in January.
Teen found in the woods
St. Clair County sheriff’s investigators found Reeves at about 2 a.m. April 29, 2006, in the woods at Citizens Park in Belleville after Shelton led them to her following a 13-hour interrogation, according to Belleville News-Democrat coverage of the crime.
Reeves had been reported missing and detectives later learned that Shelton, who was then 26, had been in a relationship with Reeves. In 2006, Shelton was a teacher at Freeburg High School and Reeves was attending Columbia High School. Officials said the two first met when Reeves was in the seventh grade and Shelton was teaching in Millstadt, the Associated Press has reported.
Reeves suffered brain trauma from the assault and had numerous insect bites that sent her into a high fever, according to News-Democrat coverage of the crime. She was hospitalized and then had to go under rehabilitation where she had to learn how to walk and talk again.
Shelton told investigators in an interview that was recorded on video that he used a belt in the assault against Reeves. Investigators believe Shelton left Reeves for dead in the woods and then he went line dancing at a country bar.
