Serendipity

A truck similar to the type Shawn loved to build and paint Infidelity/Betrayal/Murder...Families torn apart. Is the right man spending life in prison...or...did the real killer flea to Costa Rica with a new wife and start a new life? No! This is not the next James Patterson or John Grisham novel, nor is it a Hollywood blockbuster! This is a true story about my son Shawn Campbell whom was convicted in 2005 for murder in the second degree and is currently serving 25 years to life in a maximum security prison in upstate New York. Please take a few minutes of your time to read this story. September 27, 2004, was a day that changed a lot of lives and a day that rocked the small town of Bath, NY. A woman by the name of Rhonda Bilby was murdered that morning. On the morning of September 29, 2004, my son Shawn received a call from Senior BCI Investigator Ricky Kemp asking him to come into the Bath State Police Barracks because they had some questions about  the “Bilbys”....

(**Previously published 5/9/11**) As I have mentioned in my previous post, my son, Shawn Campbell, is struggling to find  justice  in a case that some have called a 'slam dunk'.  He was railroaded into  pleading guilty  for a crime he did not commit, and has proof that the county District Attorney's office had been forewarned of a 'murder to hire plot' that was going around Wende Correctional Facility at in weeks prior to Rhonda Bilby's murder. He is back in court today, and I will have the details as they become available to me.  As well, I will post each section of the interview as they are aired.                              

Right from the beginning, Shawn's arrest and then sentencing has been a hard pill for me to swallow. No mother wishes to see a child in prison, but when it happens...what then? For me, it couldn't have come at a worst time.  I was still deep in the grip of my breakdown, still not able to function mentally and emotionally...and I know that I wept a lot during this time.  I couldn't believe that my son, a big, huggable teddy bear that everyone loved, could do something so terrible.  It just didn't fit. Shawn's case was high profile, this was a big deal in a county that is one of the biggest in New York, and as much as I wanted to be there for my son...I couldn't.  I couldn't make myself go to the court hearings, I didn't want to be seen by the public or in the media...as I said, I was having a very hard time coping. A war raged inside of me then too...unending questions, uncertainties, blaming myself, even though I did my best to bring my son  up righ...

For those of you following Shawn Campbell's Journey to Justice, I am reporting that things have stalled.  At this time, there has been no activity on his case as things get situated with his having a lawyer. He has been extremely stressed because there has been no court date re-set, and there are motions to be filed that need attention.  We all remain hopeful that things will get situated soon...and that as soon as there is anything I can post, I will! Thanks for following!  Oh--if you are on Facebook, please go to "Team Campbell" and hit the 'Like' button to show your support!

LAS VEGAS -- A man is in custody facing charges that he killed a 6-year-old boy by suffocating him. The child's family which lives on E. Desert Inn Rd. reported that Christopher Montgomery wasn't breathing on the morning of Thursday, May 26. The child was later pronounced dead at Sunrise Hospital. According to the arrest report, the boy's mother told police that her cousin, Carl Guilford, who was also staying at the home, had been acting strange for a number of months and had allegedly smoked some marijuana that had changed him. She said he often spoke of spirits and making sacrifices. In the report, police say they did interview Guilford and he told them he had put a comforter over the child's face to quiet him. The boy suffered from asthma and breathing problems. Guilford also admitted to detectives that he had put his hand around the boy's throat and squeezed. He said he heard a voice in the room that said, "well done". Guilford told ...

Shawn was born July 13, 1977, weighing 4 lbs., 13 oz.  He was a good baby...and we really didn't have many problems with his health through the years. He was the typical all American boy...dirty hands, ripped knees in his jeans, always looking at things with the eyes of a curious child.  He played hard and slept hard! He loved cars and trucks...loved going to stock car races too.  He's always had a fascination with vehicles and how they run...and by the time he was 13-14, he rebuilt a car engine with little help from anyone else!     He honestly never really liked school, although when he applied himself, he received high grades.  In many respects, I think school bored him.     Even as a child, he had a very charismatic personality...he loved people and people loved him! Here...even on a cold day...he had to be outside...looking at rocks and picking up the pretty ones! He's always loved working with his h...

False Confessions In this part of the interview with Shawn Campbell, who pleaded guilty to the murder of Rhonda Bilby in 2005, the question of 'false confession' emerges. The New York Times published an article, Oct 3, 2010 called:    “I Did It”   Why do people confess to crimes they didn’t commit? An expert on the subject, Alan Hirsch (who was mentioned in the news video) has a website:  The Truth About False Confessions where he offers his input into why this happens. There are many mitigating factors that drive people to confess to crimes that they did not commit, and it's certainly worth the effort to take a look at the information I have linked to.  The reality is that it does happen. This is the question I have dealt with since he pleaded guilty:  Why--IF he is innocent? It's so easy to say "Well I wouldn't have pleaded guilty if I was innocent," however...most of us are have not tried those shoes on. (And yes--I have a few seconds...

screen grab of one of the letters sent to the District Attorney It wouldn't be until after the sentencing that Shawn found letters that had been sent to the District Attorney's office of a "murder plot for hire" that had circulated Wende Correctional Facility in the weeks prior to Rhonda Bilby's murder. Here was information that would have been the key to PROVING Shawn's innocence. So why was Shawn never told about them?   These letters were and are key instruments to prove that Shawn had no part in the murder of this woman. In the interview below, the ADA Baker states that Shawn DID know about them and didn't want to pursue the issue as part of his defense.  It's a lie. I remember when Shawn found those letters...he was extremely angry that he hadn't been told about them and I am literally the first person he called when he found them.  He was excited too...this would mean the difference between life in prison or freedom!

Does this look like a murderer? From the beginning, there have always been unanswered questions in Shawn's case...why was he targeted to take the fall...there was no proof of his guilt--and plenty of reasonable doubt --yet here is a county that was driven to convict him at all costs. In 2008, a new set of eyes looked at Shawn's case through eyes that were far removed geographically.  KJ Mullins, a Canadian journalist wrote two stories about Shawn's case that appeared on a website called Digital Journal: A Global Digital Media Network : Murder In A Small Town Op-Ed: When Rumours Swirl Both take a look at the thoughts, the facts as were known then (and now) and asks a lot of important questions . In the years since, nothing has changed except that Shawn has taken a more active role in his case, determining what will be done and how, along with having a lawyer who is willing to pull out the plugs and fight against a county that is Hell bent on keeping the truth burie...

Part 3 of the story: The Handyman--My Son The last two trips that Shawn Campbell made to the courtroom in Steuben County, located in Bath, NY has ended in disaster. Both   times, every motion his lawyer, Joseph Valley put across the table, the judge denied.  (As you may recall, these hearings were to decide whether the fact that a previous lawyer [Mr. K] was in the wrong by with-holding exculpatory evidence...which he denies doing, by-the-way.) Why? In court on April 25th, words and emotions escalated between Shawn's lawyer and the Assistant DA...so that it was less about Shawn's case and more about who was right in doing what.  Today...it only got worse. Today, not only did the judge deny any motions brought by Mr. Valley, but as well, he called for a conference in his chambers between Shawn, his lawyer, and both the DA and the Asst. DA.  There, things got heated so that what it boiled down to was the DA's office was putting down Mr. Valley, essentially s...

Yesterday, my son, Shawn Campbell...who was labeled as the "Handyman Killer" was in court again...asking for another trial , as well as having an unusual request: that the Assistant D.A. Brooks Baker be called as a witness.   What this means is that IF Mr. Baker is called as a witness, the D.A.'s office will have to be replaced by a special prosecutor!  Go Shawn and Mr. Valley! Again, Shawn's former lawyer, Mr. K. was mentioned...as having coerced Shawn's guilty plea, as well as with-holding important evidence that would have changed the course of the trial. That is likely to be addressed in the weeks to come. Shawn's Aunt Kathy (Overholt) said it all in the video:  "The truth will come out in the end."  

On January 16, 2008 I published my first blog, titled “ The Handyman...Who Is He? ”. What I didn’t say then, but what might be intuited was that this story was about someone close to me, but I didn’t say…didn’t want to admit …it was my oldest son. When I wrote that entry, I was still angry…mostly because of the fact that it was my son in prison, and I was having a extremely hard time dealing with that. Even back then (and now), I hated the term 'handyman' because the local media had really played up that term to describe my son...linking that term so that it equated to "murderer".  Thankfully, for the most part, the media has dropped the 'handyman' when they talk about him and his case, which has some new developments . (2 separate links.) My son was accused of murdering Ronda Bilby at her home in what the police and the District Attorney referred to as a "botched robbery-gone wrong".  All the evidence was circumstantial, there was no blood f...