Web site pays tribute to young man allegedly slain by ex-Manhattan Beach cop turned molester

Justin Daniel James loved cars, especially his old blue Camaro. He didn't get to see too many black Hummer H2s in his small Louisiana town.

So when former Manhattan Beach police Sgt. Shawn Shelton invited him downstairs on a Saturday night to look at his shiny sport utility vehicle, James jumped.

By morning, the 19-year-old was dead. A coroner determined he died from an acute combination of cocaine, morphine and Xanax. James was ruled the victim of a homicide.

"It's a criminal investigation," Natchitoches Parish District Attorney Van Kyzar said. " Shelton was, according to the investigative reports thus far, the last person with him before his death."

Police officials in Natchitoches, La., will not discuss their case, but plan to question Shelton -- once the fastest-rising young officer in his department's history -- in the coming weeks.

It will be easy to find him. Shelton , who four years ago accused his chief and department of targeting him with anti-gay slurs, is in jail in Las Vegas, charged with kidnapping a 14-year-old boy from a bus stop and sexually assaulting him in his Hummer.

Shelton potentially could face murder charges in Louisiana if investigators deem him responsible for James ' death on Oct. 30.

"I will not give up until I see justice done," said James ' mother, Lisa James . "I will do whatever I have to do."

* * *

James ' death shocked Winnfield, a town of about 5,500 residents. Last year, James was among Dodson High School's class of 20 graduates.

An avid duck hunter, James enjoyed cars and girls. Working at a local trading post, he considered racing school or a law enforcement career after becoming friends with a Winnfield police officer.

"He was interested in a lot of stuff," said former girlfriend Beth Vines. "Every day there was something new with him."

Family friend Marsheila Rudd called James a "mack daddy," a slang term for a "lady's man." His funeral, she said, drew 300 young women.

"I have never seen that many tears flow," Rudd said. "Even if he never dated them, he was that special of a person to just befriend them."

* * *

Last August, the city of Manhattan Beach paid Shelton , a nine-year-veteran officer, $45,000 to settle two lawsuits he filed against the city. He also came away with a disability retirement that pays him a pension.

But Shelton , 39, who resigned from the force in 2003, still needed a job. He called his college friend Kirk Kepper, a young actor working as an executive producer on "The American Standards," a movie about to film in Natchitoches. James Brolin heads the cast of the independent movie scheduled to be released next year.

Kepper said Shelton told him a wild story of heroism, how he rescued two hostages tied up in a robbery at a Federal Express office.

"He said he was shot in the line of duty," Kepper said.

Shelton said the police force let him go because of medical problems, Kepper said.

Kepper, who said he knew nothing about Shelton 's lawsuits or his arrest in March 2003 for forging prescriptions, was glad to give him a job. Shelton had no title, but would work on the set and allow the producers to use his Hummer.

"He was the most straight-laced cop person you would have ever met in your life," Kepper said. "When he called me and wanted to come to work, it was like 'No problem.' "

Shelton took up residence in a suite at the Frog Pond Apartments, a complex primarily rented by college students at Northwestern State University of Louisiana. The movie company leased several units during the production. Kepper's apartment had four bedrooms. One was given to Shelton .

Almost immediately, Shelton posed a problem, Kepper said.

"I started noticing his runny nose, his staying up all night," Kepper said. "I approached him. I said, 'Something's up. You can't work with me and be associated with us like this.' "

Shelton denied he was using drugs, Kepper said.

But the behavior continued. Shelton complained about his pay. He slept late and failed to show up for work.

A week into the job, Shelton said he had to fly back to Los Angeles for a court proceeding and to see a doctor, Kepper said. While he was gone, Kepper discovered that Shelton had printed fake businesses cards listing himself as a movie producer.

"We caught wind of that after he passed one off to a woman at the Frog Pond," Kepper said. "That's why we got rid of him."

Kepper called Shelton in Los Angeles, told him to return to Natchitoches and collect his belongings. Shelton arrived three weeks later on Oct. 29, the same night James decided to visit friends at the Frog Pond.

The friends lived upstairs.

* * *

As James hung out, he overheard Shelton talking with someone on his cellular telephone, demanding the person bring back his Hummer, Mrs. James said.

"They said it was like a light went off in my son. He's all about cars," Mrs. James said. "He said, 'Oh man, you got a Hummer?' "

Shelton invited James downstairs to visit.

During the night, James signed on to Shelton 's computer and sent messages to his sister's cellular telephone. His sister, Destiny James , found the messages when she awakened Sunday morning.

"She said, ' Justin sent me 100 messages last night. I can't make no sense of this,' " the mother said. "He put on there: 'I met a movie producer,' gave his name and said he is going to 'hook me up in the movies.' "

The messages started simply: "Tell Momma I'm all right. I'll be there in church by 11."

Another suggested he wanted to set his sister up with Shelton if her relationship with her boyfriend did not work out, Mrs. James said.

As the messages arrived, they became incoherent. At one point, it appeared James fell on the computer keys because the same letters repeated over and over, Mrs. James said.

* * *

Kepper, the man earlier on the telephone with Shelton , had driven the Hummer to Houston. He was on the road back to Natchitoches at 11 the next morning when he received a startling telephone call.

His acting coach screamed: "There's a dead guy in the apartment!"

The stunned producer called 911 from the road.

Lynn and Lisa James arrived at the hospital by noon, not expecting what they would find.

"I said, 'I'm here to see my son. I'm Justin 's mother. How is he? What's wrong with him?' " Mrs. James recalled about their arrival at the emergency room.

"He just looked at me. I said, 'He is alive?' He said, 'No ma'am, he's not.' "

Mrs. James believes she blacked out and collapsed to the floor. The doctor told them it looked like drug abuse.

"I said, 'He didn't do that! He didn't do that!' " Mrs. James recalled. "I said, 'It couldn't have been.' I said over and over. I didn't know what was going on."

Prom date Vines, James ' steady girlfriend during their senior year, said James occasionally drank, but he was against using drugs.

"The whole time we were together he never used anything," she said. "It was a big shock when they called and told me. That was not something I could imagine him doing. Even if he was, he would be smarter than to mix the stuff that was found in him. He is not a dumb person."

And, she said, had James known Shelton was gay he never would have hung out with him. Homosexuality collided with his religious beliefs.

"He wouldn't accept it," Vines said. "He would have probably not have gone down there with that guy."

* * *

Kepper and his roommates wanted answers.

"We were like, 'What in the hell?' " Kepper said, recalling a conversation with Shelton . "He said something like, 'He and his three fraternity friends were all wasted and drunk and doing drugs before he came down here.' "

Shelton told Kepper that James fell asleep on the couch, and passed out on the computer's keyboard. Shelton said he could not wake James and laid him down on the floor.

At one point, Shelton said he heard James gurgle, Kepper said.

The former police officer sought no help until the acting coach emerged from his bedroom and found James on the living room floor.

"Shawn told us the next day that the kid had typed up a suicide note," Kepper said. "He said the kid came down and he caught him typing a note to his sister, saying how he hated his dad and how his dad used to beat him."

Kepper never saw Shelton again. In January, Coroner Charles Curtis ruled the death a homicide, not a suicide.

"I had such a bad taste in my mouth," he said. "I didn't want anything to do with Shawn."

* * *

Six weeks after James ' death, Ventura County sheriff's deputies arrested Shelton when he identified himself as a law enforcement officer and displayed a stolen badge while trespassing on a ranch near Simi Valley. Shelton , who lived in nearby Moorpark, was accompanied by an 18-year-old Canoga Park man under the influence of narcotics, police said.

Deputies who searched Shelton 's Hummer found a police baton and checked the badge, which was missing from the Manhattan Beach police station.

In an e-mail to the Daily Breeze, Shelton denied he had done anything wrong and blamed former Manhattan Beach Police Chief Ernest Klevesahl for pressuring Ventura County officials to arrest him in retaliation for his lawsuit.

"As much as I would love to clear my name in an aggressive manner via the press as Klevesahl defamed mine, it's up to you as I just don't trust anyone else," he wrote a reporter in a Dec. 23 e-mail.

On May 28, police in Corona arrested Shelton , wanted in the Las Vegas sexual assault.

According to police, Shelton showed the youth a police badge and ordered him into the Hummer. Shelton allegedly drove the boy into the desert, handcuffed him, and sexually assaulted him.

Shelton remains in custody on $2 million bail.

Las Vegas and Natchitoches detectives and prosecutors already have spoken.

* * *

Shelton 's mother, Andrea Shelton , does not know what to make of the charges in Las Vegas. She believes in her son's innocence, but has not spoken to him.

She said he is innocent in the James case.

"All I know is Shawn called me frantic and told me some kid overdosed in his apartment," she said.

"He thought he was asleep when he was laying on the computer. ( James ) was drunk and he was on something and he couldn't wake him up. He was breathing fine."

Mrs. Shelton called Kepper a liar and said her son told her he quit his job in Louisiana because of the pay.

"Why would Shawn give him drugs?" she said. "Who's to say the kid didn't take it himself?"

Jail isn't where Mrs. Shelton expected her son to end up. His troubles, she said, began with his accusations in Manhattan Beach.

"Here is a good guy trying to do the right thing," the mother said. "When he challenged the chief everything changed. When the chief found out he was gay, the chief and everyone else were targeting him."

City officials have repeatedly denied Shelton 's accusations.

Mrs. Shelton said she did not know if her son had a drug problem.

An Internet crime blog with repeated references about Shelton and James ' death confounds her. Mrs. Shelton wrote in, urging readers to wait to hear her son's side of the story.

"If that lad had prescription drugs in his system, how can anyone guarantee that Shawn forced them down his throat?" she wrote.

"I'm so sorry for your loss, but I'm not ready to convict my son until all information is available."

* * *

In Winnfield, James ' parents and friends also wait for answers.

James father said his son's death comes to his mind as many as 30 times a day. He knows his son never ingested those drugs voluntarily.

"We need to get it solved. It's hard to deal with something like this," Lynn James said. "All we want is justice. It was just an innocent boy at the wrong place at the wrong time. He was real friendly and he just got caught up and didn't know what was going on."