Boyfriend with screwdriver kills man lured by girlfriend, feds say. ‘Eagerness to kill’
A man professed an “eagerness to kill” for his girlfriend in a diary entry a few months after federal prosecutors said he stabbed another man to death with a screwdriver.
Elias Viola ambushed the man, identified only as John Doe, with the help of his then-girlfriend Shannon Etsitty and beat him with a baseball bat before killing him on Sept. 16, 2021 in New Mexico, according to prosecutors.
Viola, Etsitty and Viola’s friend, who was also involved, took turns stabbing John Doe and later dumped his body in a field near Etsitty’s mother’s home, where he was found a week later, court documents say.
Viola and Etsitty are accused of coming up with a plot to lure the man to his death, prosecutors said.
The plan involved them texting John Doe, who Etsitty had also been in a relationship with, from Etsitty’s phone and misleading him into believing she wanted to meet up for sex, according to court documents.
The month following the killing, Etsitty told Viola she kept having nightmares about John Doe and could recall the “smell of ‘that dudes blood,’” according to court documents.
Viola recalled “how happy” he was when he killed John Doe, and how he “had a smile” on his face, sentencing documents say.
Then, “the next day, Etsitty thanked (Viola) for turning her into someone else, because she was no longer weak. She ‘just feel like going on a killing spree,’” prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memorandum.
Now, Viola, a 32-year-old resident of Naschitti, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison in connection with kidnapping and killing John Doe, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico announced May 17.
Viola and Etsitty, who haven’t been sentenced yet, both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping, according to prosecutors.
A federal public defender appointed to represent Viola and Etsitty’s court-appointed attorney didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ requests for comment on May 17.
The killing
According to prosecutors, Viola and Etsitty’s relationship was complicated and “they have a child together,” the sentencing memo says.
In 2020, Etsitty filed a restraining order against Viola for domestic abuse but it was dismissed after she didn’t appear in court, according to the sentencing memo.
Etsitty also had a relationship with John Doe, who she propositioned for sex on Sept. 16, 2021, the sentencing memo says.
In March 2022, Etsitty told investigators that she was with Viola and a friend that day, according to prosecutors.
Both Viola and the friend were drinking, and Viola “became angry” after seeing “ a text message from John Doe on Etsitty’s phone,” the sentencing memo says.
Etsitty feared Viola would hurt her, according to prosecutors.
“(Viola) wanted to hurt Doe, so she agreed to help,” the sentencing memo says.
In an interview with Viola that month, he told investigators that he and his girlfriend both texted Doe “about setting up a sexual meeting,” according to the sentencing memo.
After John Doe agreed to meet with Etsitty, she picked him up from his home and drove him to an unspecified location, where Viola was waiting to attack, prosecutors said.
Viola told investigators that with John Doe in the car, he “jumped through the windshield” and onto him as “(his friend) got in the backseat and held Doe as (Viola) attacked him” with a baseball bat and screwdriver, according to the sentencing memo.
Viola, Etsitty and the friend hid John Doe’s body “under nearby brush before returning hours later to move Doe to a field near Etsitty’s mother’s house, prosecutors said.
The friend hasn’t been charged in federal court in John Doe’s death, Tessa M. DuBerry, the secretary for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, told McClatchy News on May 20.
The investigation
With Doe missing, the community looked for him until a person not involved in the search found his body on Sept. 23, 2021, according to prosecutors.
After Etsitty’s texts to Doe on Sept. 16, investigators learned that she and Viola were involved in a car crash near his apartment the same day, prosecutors said.
One of John Doe’s shoes was found near the scene of the crash, according to prosecutors.
In November 2021, following a review of Etsitty and Viola’s communications to each other, the FBI found the car involved in the crash at a tow yard, where the vehicle lacked two seats and had blood stains, which were identified as John Doe’s blood, prosecutors said.
One of the missing seats was ultimately found at Viola’s home, according to prosecutors.
“When Viola was interviewed by agents, he admitted to attacking John Doe,” prosecutors said.
Viola’s prison sentence will be followed by five years of supervised release.
Etsitty’s sentencing is scheduled for July 23 in federal court in Albuquerque, court records show.
Naschitti, where Viola is from, is about a 180-mile drive northwest of Albuquerque.
This story was originally published May 17, 2024 at 3:53 PM with the headline "Boyfriend with screwdriver kills man lured by girlfriend, feds say. ‘Eagerness to kill’."
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