Jurors Hear Contrasting Views of Courtroom Killer

The trial of courtroom killer Ellie Nesler opened Thursday with starkly different portraits of both Nesler and the man she gunned down at a court hearing where he faced charges of molesting her son.

In opening statements, prosecutor Jo Graves depicted Nesler as a self-appointed executioner who waited months to kill Daniel Mark Driver--defenseless and shackled the day he was shot.

But defense lawyer Tony Serra described Driver as a “sick snake” who used the guise of religion and romance to meet children he could molest.

Serra said Nesler snapped when she heard someone predict that Driver, an admitted child molester, could go free on charges he molested four Tuolumne County boys between 1986 and 1989.

In front of witnesses, Nesler fired five bullets into the back of Driver’s head during an April 2 hearing in the former Gold Rush town of Jamestown. The hearing was to determine whether Driver should stand trial.

Graves told jurors that Nesler made “a decision to play God” months earlier.

“Maybe I’m not God, but I’ll tell you what: I’m the closest damn thing to it,” Graves quoted Nesler as saying to officers immediately after the shooting.

The prosecutor said Nesler laughed and asked whether the shooting might keep her from getting a job she had applied for at the Sheriff’s Department.

But Nesler’s lawyer dismissed his client’s repeated statements about wanting to kill Driver.