Clay County Sheriff’s Department mug of Jesteen Weiler (now Billingsley) in 2012; we’re working on getting the new one.
CLAY CO., Ill.—I have no idea how we missed this one, but we surely did.
Jesteen Weiler Billingsly, known round these here parts as Jesteeeeeeeeen, was arrested and charged in Clay County back in Late August with Retail Theft.
And because she recently (Oct. 1) pled guilty to it, it suddenly hit all of Clay County’s news outlets and everybody is thinking it’s a more recent thing.
This is the problem we have with Clay’s media, such as it is; we’ve been told, first-hand, that they don’t cover court things until it’s all over and done with. Which kind of defeats the purpose of the initial arrest and charge. especially if no one knows that this person is busted and perhaps subsequently posts bond and is out and about, and can carry out their alleged criminal conduct again. This is particularly onerous if it’s someone like an alleged sex offender (which was actually the circumstance in 2005 when we were told this by a representative of Clay County media) and might not necessarily hold true against someone somewhat sticky-fingered…but if you had a retail establishment, wouldn’t YOU like to know if that person has been charged, especially if he or she is rummaging about your place?
Jesteen Weiler (Billingsley) and her ta’s; the pic that got everybody stirred up in April 2013….don’t know why…she took it HERSELF.
So here’s what we can gather: Somehow we missed Jesteeeen, likely because her last name is now Billingsley and we probably just glanced over it and moved on when we were doing the courthouse crawls in Clay in late August. The arrest occurred August 22. We don’t know for sure where it occurred, although some of our sources are telling us WalMart in Flora. Flora PD got her, that much we’ve confirmed with Clay County Sheriff’s Department sources, who provided us with the mugshot you see here from her 2012 arrest that involved stealing controlled substance pills from someone she was caring for at a nursing home in Flora at that time. Anyway, she entered a guilty plea to this current charge on Oct. 1, and got Conditional Discharge. CONDITIONAL DISCHARGE. For a drug felon. What the hell.
And then when the CD was announced some weeks later, like this was all a new thing, everybody started contacting us about it, circa this morning.
We already had Jesteeeeeeeen in the paper a couple of issues back when she lost on an OP filing against an uncle. She must’ve taken out her frustrations over that loss by giving herself a five-finger discount. And of course everyone remembers the nightmare Jesteeeeeeeen and her mother who gave her the strange name (it’s spelled J-U-S-T-I-N-E, Ma), Sherry Kittle, put Jesteeeeeen’s deceased sister Andrea Weiler’s babydaddy and child through in 2013. It was during this issue with Baby Lily that we were under attack by the Billingsleys, who couldn’t seem to face the fact that Jon B. had married a convict.
But…he did. And here we are. We might do a little more on this incident in the upcoming issue (November 12); in the meantime, the Election Edition is on stands and we’re prepping This Month’s Print Headlines for it; there’s something for everyone in this one, so don’t miss out! Get out and get yours today; it’s a limited edition, or you can click this link and get yourself an online membership and read it right here!