PHOTO: Former Manhattan Beach cop's booking mug

This is the jailhouse booking mug of Shawn Shelton, a former Manhattan Beach police sergeant once considered a rising star on his force.

Shelton is awaiting trial in the killing of a 19-year-old man in Louisiana. I learned today he was transferred two days before Christmas from the Natchitoches Parish jail to the Caddo Correctional Center in Shreveport.

This booking mug is up on the jail's Web site.

Calvin McFerrin, the chief of corrections in Natichitoches Parish, said Shelton was moved because of his medical status and financial reasons.

Apparently it costs quite a bit for the medications and care for an inmate who is HIV positive and the city of Natichitoches didn't pay the parish's bill.

So, the parish transferred Shelton off to the larger facility in Shreveport.

Shelton, who already could spend the rest of his days in prison for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in Las Vegas, is charged with drugging and killing Justin James in Natchitoches.

(By the way, if you go to that Caddo Web site, just click on the names and check out the mugs. That can keep you busy on a boring day.)

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