Shrubsall has a long history of violent crime, including fatally beating his mother in 1988 on the eve of his graduation from LaSalle High School. He served 16 months for that incident, and he had been previously arrested by police for picking up an undercover officer posing as a prostitute.
In 1996, he was convicted of sexual abuse of a 17-year-old girl and was sentenced to 2 1/3 to seven years in prison in absentia, as he left a suicide note and failed to show up for closing arguments of that case, and he then absconded to Canada.
However, he was a constant problem for law enforcement in Canada as well.
Shrubsall, who legally changed his name to Ethan Simon Templar MacLeod, lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where in one incident, punched and choked a woman who tried to call a taxi. Detectives searching his room discovered that he had the identification of two previous victims that he attacked, and this was confirmed by witnesses. These were for aggravated sexual assault and one in May 1998 for robbing and assaulting a female store clerk with a baseball bat.
Canada then decided to deport him back to the United States, and Wojtaszek wasn't too pleased with that decision.
"[Canada> said their system had done everything they could for him, that nothing about his status was going to change, and they were going to send him back to the States to fill out his sentence here," said Wojtaszek. "I find that concerning because the majority of his violent crimes did happen after he absconded, and he went on to get three additional violent convictions there for very disturbing behavior."
Shrubsall was taken into custody today with assistance from Canadian Border Services, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the New York State Police.
"We are certainly going to push for consecutive sentencing; it should be consecutive sentencing," she said. "His sexual assault of a woman is wholly different from jumping bail during the pendency of that case. We will do everything that we can here in Niagara County to keep him in jail as long as possible."
Shrubsall's pretrial date is scheduled for March 20, and the preliminary trial date beginning is scheduled for June 10.