Murder of Sheila Bellush

Sheila Bellush with her husband Jamie and her four youngest children

Sheila Bellush was a mother of six who was murdered on November 7, 1997 by a hired gunman named Joey Del Toro, on the orders of her ex-husband, Allen Blackthorne. Blackthorne, who had stalked Bellush since their divorce in 1987, allegedly wanted custody of their two children.^[1]

Background

Sheila Leigh Walsh was born on October 19, 1962 in Topeka, Kansas. She married Blackthorne in 1982, and had two daughters, Stevie and Daryl. Their divorce was not amicable, with each accusing the other of abusing their children. Sheila married Jamie Bellush in 1993, and had quadruplets two years later. They moved to Sarasota, Florida to escape the constant surveillance of her ex-husband.^[1]

Murder

Blackthorne was unhappy with his divorce from Sheila, and began to harass her after she won custody of their children. When the Bellush family moved to Florida he tracked her down using a private investigator and decided to hire a hoodlum to beat her up. A golfing buddy, Daniel Alex Rocha, a minor criminal, seemed the best bet to set his plan in motion, and Blackthorne asked Rocha to help him. Rocha was allegedly told by Blackthorne that Sheila was abusing their two children, Stevie and Daryl, which is the reason Rocha agreed to the whole thing because Rocha didn't want the children to be in any harm.^[2] So Rocha contacted a friend, Samuel Gonzalez, who introduced him to his cousin, Jose Luis Del Toro. Del Toro agreed to do the job in return for a monetary sum.^[1]

On November 7, 1997, Del Toro traveled to Sarasota, Florida in a car registered to his grandmother with the intention of assaulting Sheila. He stopped at a Sports Authority store to obtain camouflage clothes, and a gas station to get directions to the address Rocha gave him.^[3] On his way to Sheila's house, Del Toro was spotted by a suspicious neighbor who memorized his license plate. (This would later lead to his capture). Del Toro continued to the Sarasota home, where he broke in and saw Sheila with the quadruplets. In an interview with police before his conviction, he told them that he saw her with her children and saw how caring she was and almost didn't go through with it. He was about to leave but Sheila noticed the door was open and then noticed him. He stated, he couldn't run so he shot her in the face with a .45 Caliber gun and then slit her throat in full view of the quadruplets. She was 35 years old.^[3] Her body was found a few hours later by 13-year-old Stevie when she returned from school.^[4]

Aftermath

Jose Del Toro fled to Mexico after committing the murder. He was extradited to the United States in July 1999, and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and armed burglary charges in 2000 in Florida. Circuit Judge Paul Logan gave Del Toro two consecutive life sentences, the maximum penalty for both charges. Gonzalez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder in June 1998 in a plea bargain; he was sentenced to 19 years in prison. Rocha opted to go to trial instead and was convicted of first degree murder in January 1999 with Gonzalez's testimony; he received a life sentence.^[3]

Allen Blackthorne was convicted of federal charges of interstate conspiracy to commit murder and interstate domestic violence. He received two concurrent life sentences in a Texas federal prison and was ineligible to ever be paroled. In 2001 he was almost killed during an attack by a prison gang, after which he was segregated from the general prison population and eventually transferred to a Florida facility. Allen Blackthorne died, aged 59, on November 18, 2014, at the Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, Indiana. The cause of death in the case was not released.^[5]

Portrayals

The books Every Breath You Take (ISBN 9780743439749) by Ann Rule and The Truth is Stronger Than a Lie (ISBN 0975318519) by Khari Imo are about this case. The case inspired the episode "The Hired Help" of the series Behind Mansion Walls, presented by Investigation Discovery, and a 2002 episode of A&E's American Justice, titled "Brutal Revenge" (since repackaged for The Biography Channel under the series title Notorious). This case was also illustrated in a 2011 episode of the Investigation Discovery Channel series FBI: Criminal Pursuit, titled "Twisted Obsession".^[6] In 2015, "48 Hours: Hard Evidence" (or "48 Hours: Mystery/Investigation) on Investigation Discovery released an episode titled "Justice for Sheila."

References