He first gained notoriety after killing his mother on the eve of his high school graduation. Niagara Falls native William Shrubsall later fled to Canada to dodge a sexual assault conviction but got in trouble there for numerous crimes. He will soon be heading back to the United States but local authorities are hoping they'll be able to keep him away from society, even after his pending prison sentence is fulfilled.
Shrubsall was set to deliver remarks as valedictorian of the LaSalle High School Class of 1988. The night before the graduation ceremony, he fatally bludgeoned his mother using a baseball bat.
He had blamed years of mental and physical abuse for the attack, was granted youthful offender status and served less than two years for a manslaughter conviction. He enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, where he stood accused of sexual harassment of several women.
Then in 1995, he was charged with sexually assaulting a local 17-year-old girl who, prosecutors said, had passed out after drinking at a party. He was convicted in 1996 of first-degree and third-degree sexual assault but fled to Canada before sentencing, attempting to convince authorities he had taken his life by going over Niagara Falls.
He made his way to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he lived under the alias Ian Thor Greene (he has also adopted the alias Ethan Simon Templar MacLeod). He was arrested and convicted for three assault cases there and was labeled a dangerous offender by Canadian officials.
But in November 2018, a Canadian panel decided to grant parole for the purpose of deporting Shrubsall back to the United States.
"I am surprised," said Niagara County District Attorney Caroline Wojtaszek. "I know that the Crown Attorneys went to great lengths to bring in victims of William Shrubsall in Canada, to make sure to make sure he was declared a sexual predator and a dangerous offender with no possibility of parole."
A schedule for his return has not yet been completed. Wojtaszek says Shrubsall will first be jailed in Niagara County as he awaits a bail-jumping charge for his flight to Canada. He also awaits the start of two concurrent two-and-a-third to seven year sentences for the 1995 sexual assault case, for which he was sentenced in absentia.
The Niagara County DA is concerned Shrubsall will serve a lesser sentence for that sexual assault conviction, given the way sentences were structured at the time of his conviction.
"The sentencing structure back in 1996 was different than it is now," Wojtaszek said. "Now, for that same charge you would have what we call a determinate sentence, where a defendant serves out the majority of their sentence - five, six seven years - and they have to serve six-sevenths of that. This sentencing structure was an indeterminate sentence, which means after two and a third years - two years and four months - he's up for parole."
If convicted of that bail-jumping charge, Shrubsall might face another couple years in prison. But local authorities are not interested in allowing Shrubsall to one day walk again as a free man. Wojtaszek suggests the New York State Attorney General has the means to examine Shrubsall's case history and determine whether to pursue civil confinement.
"This is a person, an individual that has committed very serious crimes. He has been declared a dangerous offender and a sexual predator," she said. "I know there was some evidence that was put into the case up in Canada, that he was declared a psychopath. This is not somebody we want on the streets of Niagara County or anywhere for that matter."
Canadian media first reported last November of that nation's decision to parole and deport Shrubsall. So, too, did the Niagara Gazette. WBFO, at that time, attempted to gather comments from Niagara Falls residents who may have known Shrubsall. While some individuals acknowledged either direct or indirect acquaintance with Shrubsall, none would consent to an interview.
As one of them explained, the concern is how Shrubsall might react to any critical comments made about him.
