Justice for Sheila?

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Speaker 7 Helen, did you have anything to do with killing your wife?

Speaker 11 It was a sight the family of murder victim Sheila Bellish thought they would never see.

Speaker 8 Alan Blackthorne. Does Blackthorne have anything to say about this?

Speaker 15 Sheila's millionaire ex-husband being led to court for his murder trial on charges he allegedly arranged her brutal killing.

Speaker 9 Just months earlier, Blackthorne, a retired businessman, was living the country club life in San Antonio, Texas.

Speaker 9 Others had been convicted convicted of Sheila Bellish's killing.

Speaker 8 We find that the defendant is guilty.

Speaker 19 And although they had implicated Blackthorne

Speaker 15 in the 1997 murder for hire plot, he had never been arrested.

Speaker 24 Ellen, did you want Sheila murdered?

Speaker 25 Never.

Speaker 26 In no way.

Speaker 25 I didn't want her murdered. I didn't want her hurt.

Speaker 24 I didn't want anything in that nature to ever happen to her.

Speaker 14 Period.

Speaker 28 Ellen, in your heart.

Speaker 15 I don't have any comments to make for you guys.

Speaker 17 Despite Blackthorne's denials, Texas authorities kept digging.

Speaker 11 It was a murder case they couldn't let go because of who had witnessed Sheila's violent death.

Speaker 33 Her four babies.

Speaker 34 I don't understand how anybody in this face of the earth could do that.

Speaker 36 Jean Smith is Sheila's mother.

Speaker 8 I've spent so many nights crying over those children because they were Sheila's angels.

Speaker 8 She always said, Mama, look at my angels.

Speaker 37 We wanted a baby really bad, and then we got four, so we're like, we just feel four times luckier.

Speaker 9 Those angels were Sheila's quadruplets, whose birth made Sheila and her new husband, Jamie Bellish, local celebrities in San Antonio.

Speaker 38 Francis Anthony is named after my father.

Speaker 11 The day their quads were born.

Speaker 40 The Bellish quadruplets have turned this household upside down.

Speaker 18 Baby care times four.

Speaker 16 Updates on the Bellish quads became a feature on local newscasts.

Speaker 37 The first week, oh, that was scary.

Speaker 26 She would just sit with them all all around her

Speaker 26 and just say, look at my babies, you know, and it was such a source of pride and joy for her.

Speaker 44 It was good going outside for the first time.

Speaker 45 Yes, I'm going home, you know.

Speaker 11 Life was good for Sheila.

Speaker 15 She had come a long way from a bitter divorce and custody battle with her ex-husband, Alan Blackthorne.

Speaker 25 It was a short marriage that

Speaker 25 wasn't good for either one of us.

Speaker 26 It was a nasty divorce. It was an adversarial relationship.

Speaker 48 Always.

Speaker 49 Say hi, Danny.

Speaker 35 When the quads were nearly two,

Speaker 50 Jamie, a pharmaceutical salesman, was offered a promotion.

Speaker 15 And the family moved to Sarasota, Florida.

Speaker 35 Sheila had custody of her two daughters from her marriage to Blackthorne, Daryl and Stevie, now 16 years old.

Speaker 43 People say you're like your mother. Do you like that compliment?

Speaker 51 I think that's the best compliment I've ever gotten.

Speaker 35 But just two months after moving to Florida.

Speaker 28 Is it on? Yeah, what?

Speaker 39 Should I make faces for him?

Speaker 14 Stevie's warm-hearted mother became the victim of a cold-blooded crime.

Speaker 51 Some days I just can't stop crying, you know, because I keep thinking about November 7th.

Speaker 16 November 7th, 1997.

Speaker 11 The day started well.

Speaker 51 I was actually running home from school. I had some good news.

Speaker 52 You were in good trouble.

Speaker 7 News she was anxious to share with her mom.

Speaker 51 I found out a guy that liked me was gonna ask me out.

Speaker 51 So I was so excited and I had to run home and tell her that I was gonna sit by the phone all weekend. I walked through the front door.
The first thing I really saw is uh the babies.

Speaker 25 What did you hear?

Speaker 51 Just babies crying. That was the only noise I heard, was babies crying.

Speaker 51 And so I didn't understand, you know, how she could just let them sit there and cry, because she didn't didn't do that.

Speaker 51 I had

Speaker 51 done two circles around the house trying to find her. And it kind of struck me to check the laundry room.

Speaker 51 There was, you know, blood like all over the floor.

Speaker 39 There was blood everywhere.

Speaker 33 Even on the babies.

Speaker 51 Three of them had it, like, streaked on them. One of them had it in his hair.

Speaker 9 It was their mother's blood.

Speaker 51 I don't think it registered in my mind

Speaker 51 that she was right at my feet.

Speaker 51 You know, I didn't believe it.

Speaker 51 I looked at her at her face again

Speaker 51 and

Speaker 51 when I actually bent down and looked at her, that's when I realized that she was dead.

Speaker 39 Hello.

Speaker 52 Hello.

Speaker 53 Hi, this is the 911 kitter. What's the matter?

Speaker 52 My mom.

Speaker 16 Jamie rushed home to confront an unimaginable horror.

Speaker 26 Sometimes the whole experience is somewhat surreal, and I can't believe it's really going on.

Speaker 50 And he tried to comfort Stevie.

Speaker 26 Here's Stevie, I mean, 13-year-old girl, comes home from school and finds her mother with a bullet through her face and her throat cut.

Speaker 55 It's going to be tough for her.

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 43 Do you think the babies somehow remember?

Speaker 56 Oh, sure they do.

Speaker 44 Hug?

Speaker 26 Timothy, I think he has a cognitive recollection of the murder. He says, you know, mommy had a bad boo-boo

Speaker 26 and a man did it.

Speaker 36 The man who did it left a trail of clues at the murder scene.

Speaker 16 A fingerprint, a knife, a bullet shell. And that's not all.

Speaker 15 The day of the murder, neighbors saw a suspicious man wearing combat fatigues on Mark Rich Road near the Bellish home.

Speaker 57 They saw a man wearing camouflage. They saw a man in a white car.
They saw a man with a Texas plate.

Speaker 7 Police tracked the out-of-state license plate number.

Speaker 14 And four days later.

Speaker 58 We have obtained a first-degree murder warrant charging Jose Luis Del Toro Jr. with a November 7th murder of of Mrs.
Bellish.

Speaker 44 Jose Luis del Toro, a former high school football star, is on the run.

Speaker 16 Police launch a massive manhunt for Del Toro in Florida, Texas,

Speaker 16 and northern Mexico.

Speaker 16 The savage crime becomes national news.

Speaker 59 America's most wanted.

Speaker 60 We've named him our public enemy, number one, and the cops are hoping you can help find him tonight.

Speaker 11 Two weeks later, Joey got shoots for the Bellish.

Speaker 13 Del Toro is arrested in Monterey, Mexico.

Speaker 39 Joey, you have anything more to say?

Speaker 36 Police believe they have a strong case against Del Toro.

Speaker 16 There's his fingerprint found at the Bellish's home.

Speaker 7 A gun discovered inside Del Toro's car was the weapon used to shoot Sheila.

Speaker 6 Joey, did you shoot Sheila Bellish?

Speaker 32 Also found in Del Toro's car, incredibly, were the directions to Sheila's house.

Speaker 7 But why was Sheila murdered?

Speaker 13 The house wasn't robbed, and police say Del Toro didn't know Sheila.

Speaker 10 Stevie Bellish had no doubt who was behind her mother's murder.

Speaker 51 The first person that came into my mind was Alan Blackthorne.

Speaker 47 Your father.

Speaker 51 That's the only logical explanation I have for this.

Speaker 9 But Alan Blackthorne was playing golf at the time of Sheila's murder, more than a thousand miles away in San Antonio.

Speaker 4 Could he really be involved?

Speaker 25 There is no evidence that I had any involvement in this whatsoever.

Speaker 24 That's next.

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Speaker 14 Ready?

Speaker 4 Courtney Bellish just turned three.

Speaker 16 Keep going!

Speaker 6 Keep going, Frank!

Speaker 61 So did Frankie Bellish.

Speaker 39 Keep going!

Speaker 15 Joey Bellish!

Speaker 50 And Timmy Bellish.

Speaker 4 Their father, Jamie Bellish, certainly has his hands full.

Speaker 46 You know, having having quadruplets is pretty easy when they're in the hospital.

Speaker 26 The problem is when you bring them home, that's when it gets tough.

Speaker 4 And it's even tougher for Jamie and the kids now

Speaker 35 because missing from this celebration and from their lives

Speaker 7 is the quadruplets' mother, Sheila Bellish.

Speaker 51 I don't think a day goes by when I don't think about her.

Speaker 32 Big hug, hug and a kiss.

Speaker 41 Jamie Bellish is also trying to cope with his wife's murder.

Speaker 47 There's days when I do great,

Speaker 26 and there's days when I break down and cry.

Speaker 4 But more than anything, Jamie wants justice for Sheila.

Speaker 26 I believe with all my heart that everyone involved in this crime will be eventually put behind bars.

Speaker 48 Joey got shoots.

Speaker 15 Joey Del Toro, accused of killing Sheila, is already behind bars in a Mexican jail.

Speaker 45 Sammy, what message do you have for the Bellish family today?

Speaker 13 Texas police have also arrested Del Toro's cousin, Sammy Gonzalez.

Speaker 45 Do you regret what happened?

Speaker 8 I don't have a copy.

Speaker 4 And a golf hustler named Danny Rocha.

Speaker 7 All three men now stand accused of conspiring to kill Sheila Bellish. None of the suspects apparently knew Sheila, but investigators quickly focused on someone who did.

Speaker 7 Sheila's ex-husband, Alan Blackthorne.

Speaker 56 He's evil.

Speaker 14 Pure evil.

Speaker 35 Sheila's mother, Jean Smith.

Speaker 8 He's the only person on the face of the earth that ever hurt Sheila.

Speaker 47 Put your faces right next to each other.

Speaker 50 Sheila's younger sister, Carrie, says she heard Blackthorne threaten to kill Sheila.

Speaker 53 He made the comment Sheila would never leave me because she'd never see her children and she'd never leave her children. And by chance, she did get the children, I would just kill her.

Speaker 53 You heard him say that? I heard him say that, yes.

Speaker 43 Did you ever threaten in front of Sheila's sisters to kill her if she were to ever leave you and take the girls?

Speaker 57 No, never.

Speaker 25 No threat of any kind.

Speaker 14 Period.

Speaker 66 Alan, you have been described by your enemies as evil, insane, manipulative.

Speaker 32 Who are you?

Speaker 25 Well, I'm a husband. I'm a father.

Speaker 25 I'm a golfer.

Speaker 41 Alan Blackthorne is a wealthy San Antonio businessman who can afford to play a lot of golf.

Speaker 14 Okay.

Speaker 48 Maybe, maybe.

Speaker 28 Oh!

Speaker 4 He made his fortune selling medical equipment.

Speaker 57 Play golf Monday through Friday.

Speaker 25 Play with my family on the weekends.

Speaker 9 Blackthorne lives in this million-dollar mansion with his fourth wife and their two children.

Speaker 25 We're a strong family. My wife is awesome.
My kids are great.

Speaker 34 Alan can be very, very charming. And it took me a long time to see the real Alan.

Speaker 7 Was Sheila afraid of Alan?

Speaker 40 Yes.

Speaker 11 Sheila's older sister Kathy says the real Alan

Speaker 15 is a violent man.

Speaker 40 Shortly before she decided to leave Alan, they had gotten into an argument and he had pulled her hair

Speaker 40 and hit her in the face and busted her lip.

Speaker 9 This 1987 San Antonio police report backs up Kathy's claim.

Speaker 41 Blackthorne was arrested and pled guilty for assault.

Speaker 43 You don't deny that you physically physically abused Sheila. Is that true? I did.

Speaker 27 I did hit her.

Speaker 25 It was a very low point for me in my life. I've never denied it, but I struck her once, and that's all I ever struck her.

Speaker 16 In 1987, after five years of marriage, Sheila filed for divorce.

Speaker 53 Her ex-husband was always dragging her into court some way or another. It was a constant battle.

Speaker 4 A battle that continued years after the divorce.

Speaker 41 This San Antonio police log shows that there were many family disturbance calls.

Speaker 36 In the middle of all this turmoil.

Speaker 37 Would you like to barbecue?

Speaker 67 Love it. Yeah?

Speaker 6 It's my new girlfriend, Sheila.

Speaker 10 We met on a flight. Sheila met Jamie Bellish.

Speaker 61 I'm gonna drive her home.

Speaker 4 Soon after, they were married.

Speaker 6 Come right, that's the cake.

Speaker 4 Sheila's new start seemed complete when Blackthorne finally gave up custody of his daughters, Stevie and Daryl.

Speaker 6 That's my kids. kids.

Speaker 4 Agreeing to have nothing to do with them ever again.

Speaker 39 Sheila Deedy.

Speaker 8 She took him back to court because

Speaker 8 she wanted to get on with her life and get away from him.

Speaker 53 And she had gotten the girls, something that he said would never happen if she left him.

Speaker 7 Now free to leave San Antonio, Jamie Bellish accepted a job promotion in Sarasota, Florida, and the family moved moved here.

Speaker 42 It was a fresh start for the Bellish family, 1,200 miles away from Alan Blackthorne.

Speaker 11 Two months later, Sheila Bellish was dead.

Speaker 43 When you heard that Sheila had been murdered, what did you think?

Speaker 53 Well, at first it's disbelief, and then it's horror.

Speaker 53 And then it was like

Speaker 53 he finally did it.

Speaker 16 Blackthorne's alibi on the day of the murder checks out.

Speaker 16 He was playing golf.

Speaker 13 And who was his partner that day?

Speaker 42 A man named Danny Rocha.

Speaker 45 Rocha, was Sheila Bellish's ex-husband, Alan Blackthorne, involved in her death? I don't have a couple.

Speaker 42 The same Danny Rocha who would stand trial for his role in the murder of Sheila Bellish.

Speaker 18 Why would you hire someone to kill her?

Speaker 4 Why would Danny Rocha, who says he didn't know Sheila, why would he get involved in a plot to kill her if you didn't ask him to?

Speaker 25 I don't have any idea. I don't know what has gone on with Danny Rocha.

Speaker 15 Was Alan Blackthorne involved?

Speaker 32 Will Rocha link Blackthorne to the murder of his ex-wife?

Speaker 8 I don't think anybody believes that I acted alone.

Speaker 39 That's next.

Speaker 42 It's been 14 months since Sheila Bellish was murdered.

Speaker 22 Jamie Bellish and his stepdaughter Stevie are heading to Sarasota, Florida for the trial of one of the alleged conspirators, Danny Rocha.

Speaker 7 Rocha is the man accused of organizing the murder plot

Speaker 11 and paying Joey Del Toro to kill Sheila Bellish.

Speaker 43 I want to make sure this son of a bitch is put in jail for the rest of his life.

Speaker 31 So does Sarasota prosecutor Charlie Roberts.

Speaker 60 Good afternoon. This is a case, ladies and gentlemen, of a heinous murder.

Speaker 13 Roberts is out to prove that although Rocha didn't pull the trigger, he's still guilty of first-degree murder.

Speaker 60 This is a case of the murder of a woman named Sheila Bellish who had her throat slashed and was shot in the face.

Speaker 8 Would you please state your name?

Speaker 51 Stevie Bellish.

Speaker 7 The trial will not be easy for Jamie, Stevie, or Sheila's mother, Jean Smith.

Speaker 34 I have almost died over this.

Speaker 8 The grief has been unbearable.

Speaker 26 It just comes flooding back that the brutality of her murder. It's so senseless.

Speaker 41 Not only do prosecutors want Rocha, they're hoping he will implicate the man they believe is the mastermind behind the murder.

Speaker 7 Sheila's ex-husband, Alan Blackthorne.

Speaker 69 Danny Rocha is the key to this thing.

Speaker 7 Henry Lee is a member of the prosecution team.

Speaker 69 The only witness that met with Alan Blackthorne

Speaker 69 that was involved in this conspiracy was Danny Rocha.

Speaker 45 Was Sheila Bellish's ex-husband, Alan Blackthorne, involved in her death?

Speaker 69 He was the one that could tell us what was actually said.

Speaker 60 How did this tragic event begin? The defendant, Daniel Rocha, met a wealthy man named Alan Blackthorne.

Speaker 8 He made it obvious to me that he wanted something done.

Speaker 42 Danny Rocha has never denied his involvement in the conspiracy, but he insists the plan never included murder.

Speaker 61 Just beat the hell out of her so that she couldn't take care of the kids.

Speaker 8 No, no, it wasn't that.

Speaker 42 Rocha, who decided not to take the stand in his case,

Speaker 30 did agree to speak to 48 hours.

Speaker 8 Well, I met Alan Blackthorne just after the new year of 96. We became friends.
We played golf quite a bit.

Speaker 35 Played golf and gambled.

Speaker 50 Sometimes as much as $7,000 a hole.

Speaker 4 Rocha says it was on the golf course that Alan Blackthorne would complain to him that Sheila was physically abusing their two daughters, Stevie and Daryl.

Speaker 24 What specifically did he ask you to do?

Speaker 8 He asked me if I knew anybody. that, and at the time she was living in Bernie, Texas, that would go to Bernie and,

Speaker 8 you know, rough her up a a little bit. Go walk to Daddy.

Speaker 11 So Rocha, who had never been arrested, agreed to find someone who would beat up Sheila.

Speaker 8 I knew it was wrong, but I thought it was helping. I thought it was helping two children.

Speaker 7 But prosecutors say Rocha was out to help himself.

Speaker 62 In a nutshell, the defendant would be set for life.

Speaker 41 That Blackthorne was going to reward Rocha with a partnership in a new golf course.

Speaker 10 Regardless of the reason, Rocha called up his friend, Sammy Gonzalez.

Speaker 8 He said, how you doing?

Speaker 10 The third man arrested in the murder conspiracy.

Speaker 59 State calls Samuel Gonzalez.

Speaker 70 Gonzalez, who cut his own deal with prosecutors, is now testifying against his friend Danny Rocha.

Speaker 24 Please accord.

Speaker 59 Please proceed.

Speaker 55 He started saying that

Speaker 55 this buddy of his has an ex-wife that he wanted to get beat up.

Speaker 62 Did you ask him who the person was?

Speaker 55 Yes, when I told him who's this person and was his ex-wife beat up, that's what he said, Alan.

Speaker 62 You recognize the name Alan Blackthorne? Yes.

Speaker 50 Gonzalez says Rocha offered him $4,000 to rough up Sheila.

Speaker 55 He kicked it persistent, persistent.

Speaker 54 You gave Sammy Gonzalez $4,000 in cash.

Speaker 66 Where did you get the money?

Speaker 47 From Alan.

Speaker 23 From Alan Blackthorne. Right.

Speaker 43 You gave Sammy Gonzalez one picture of Sheila.

Speaker 16 Right.

Speaker 43 And her address. Where did you get that information and the picture?

Speaker 47 From Alan.

Speaker 33 From Alan Blackthorne.

Speaker 54 So Alan Blackthorne was the puppeteer here?

Speaker 47 Sure.

Speaker 8 I don't think anybody doubts that. I mean, I don't think anybody believes that I acted alone.

Speaker 54 Why would Danny Rocha, who says he didn't know Sheila, why would he get involved in a plot to kill her if you didn't ask him to?

Speaker 25 I don't have any idea. I don't know what has gone on with Danny Rocha.

Speaker 61 He says this was your idea to either scare or beat up Sheila.

Speaker 27 Danny Rocha is a liar.

Speaker 39 Gonzalez then recruited his cousin, Joey Del Toro, to do the job.

Speaker 55 The only reason I call him is he's athletic, very quick,

Speaker 60 very very powerful.

Speaker 32 Then, according to prosecutors, Del Toro got a gun.

Speaker 62 Describe to the jury what type of weapon it is. A.45 autocaliber.

Speaker 50 And drove 1,200 miles to Sarasota.

Speaker 32 Where he shot Sheila in the face and slashed her throat.

Speaker 46 The tip itself is bent.

Speaker 28 All in front of her four babies.

Speaker 38 The area around her body, there was a a large amount of blood.

Speaker 8 I didn't participate in that. I didn't realize that was a good time.

Speaker 23 You set it in motion.

Speaker 47 You set it in motion.

Speaker 8 I was a part of it.

Speaker 54 If you had said to Alan Blackthorne, no,

Speaker 46 Sheila Bellish would be alive today.

Speaker 8 That's correct.

Speaker 24 You didn't pull the trigger, Danny.

Speaker 8 And I didn't know that there was a trigger going to be.

Speaker 22 You didn't wield the knife, but you all but opened the front door of the house and said, go get her.

Speaker 41 Didn't you?

Speaker 8 I don't even know how to answer that, Peter.

Speaker 18 Oh right, please.

Speaker 62 The only verdict, members of the jury, that the evidence supports and that justice requires is guilty as charged on both counts.

Speaker 42 During his final statement, Prosecutor Charlie Roberts closed in on Danny Rocha.

Speaker 62 Would Frankie, Timmy, Courtney, Joey, Stevie, and Daryl's mother still be alive today if it weren't for that man over there.

Speaker 11 Five hours later, the jury had the answer.

Speaker 37 The defendant is guilty of principle to murder in the first degree. The defendant is guilty of conspiracy to commit murder in the third degree.

Speaker 11 For Jeannie, it was a bittersweet victory.

Speaker 13 Rocha will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Speaker 42 But Alan Blackthorne is still a free man.

Speaker 47 Something tells me, deep down inside,

Speaker 47 that justice will be done in this case. How long is that going to take?

Speaker 26 No statute of limitations on murder.

Speaker 42 Coming up, a dramatic revelation as a private investigator claims Alan Blackthorne hired him to find Sheila.

Speaker 43 I saw the murder in the newspaper

Speaker 71 and it was like ice water. started to run through my veins because I'm sitting there putting two and two together.

Speaker 6 That's next.

Speaker 53 What's the matter?

Speaker 52 My mom.

Speaker 14 The blood on the floor.

Speaker 23 All these children without a mother.

Speaker 10 The horrible death.

Speaker 14 You're part of all that.

Speaker 8 I am. I haven't denied that.

Speaker 34 Who made you God?

Speaker 42 Danny Rocha will spend the rest of his life in prison for his part in the murder of Sheila Bellish.

Speaker 8 Now your your life too is over.

Speaker 33 A woman he never met.

Speaker 11 But the person he says wanted Sheila killed is still a free man.

Speaker 23 Why are you in prison and Alan Blackthorne is still out playing golf?

Speaker 8 That's a question you have to ask the state attorney's office. I mean I can't arrest him.

Speaker 23 Based on the testimony in court, why hasn't an arrest warrant been issued for Alan Blackthorne?

Speaker 69 The only witness that met with with Alan Blackthorne that was involved in this conspiracy was Danny Rocha.

Speaker 31 Sarasota prosecutor Henry Lee.

Speaker 69 The problem is we don't know what Rocha tells us is the truth. He has told us so many different things we don't know what to believe.

Speaker 31 Which is why building a case against Blackthorne based on Rocha's testimony alone would be risky at best.

Speaker 24 What is it going to take, do you think?

Speaker 66 What sort of break in order for you to move on Alan Blackthorne?

Speaker 69 We need some more evidence and we're looking for that.

Speaker 71 Our first involvement was a phone call

Speaker 71 from Alan Blackthorne.

Speaker 11 Chuck Chambers runs a private investigation agency near Sarasota hired by Blackthorne just weeks before Sheila's murder.

Speaker 71 That phone call came in requesting us to locate Sheila Bellish.

Speaker 24 Did you find Sheila?

Speaker 71 Yes, we did. She was very hard to find though.

Speaker 7 Chambers' office wrote up this report after the call.

Speaker 4 It lists Blackthorne's name, address, phone, and Visa card number.

Speaker 7 In the middle of the document, it says, target, James, Jamie, and Sheila Bellish.

Speaker 24 Once you found Sheila, what did you do with the information?

Speaker 71 We gave that directly to Alan Blackthorne.

Speaker 7 About the same time, Danny Rocha says he was given Sheila's address.

Speaker 43 Where did you get that information?

Speaker 8 From Alan.

Speaker 43 How did Danny Rocha get Sheila's address in Sarasota, Florida?

Speaker 32 Oh, I haven't got a clue.

Speaker 26 I have no idea.

Speaker 24 Chuck Chambers claims that he gave you the address to Sheila's home.

Speaker 61 Danny Rocha says he got Sheila's address from you.

Speaker 54 Three weeks later, she's murdered at her home. It's like connect the dots.

Speaker 66 Isn't that a damning piece of evidence against you?

Speaker 46 I don't think so at all.

Speaker 47 I had nothing to do with the death of Sheila Bellish.

Speaker 4 Hey, Frank, where's your pants? Jamie Bellish has moved his family back to the small town in New Jersey where he grew up.

Speaker 31 Jamie never gives up hope that someday Blackthorne will be brought to justice.

Speaker 12 Good morning.

Speaker 36 Then an unexpected, dramatic announcement in San Antonio, Texas.

Speaker 12 I've called this conference this morning to announce the arrest of Alan Blackthorne on the charges of murder.

Speaker 42 More than two years after Sheila's murder, a federal grand jury indicts Blackthorne.

Speaker 51 Alan, do you have anything to say?

Speaker 26 It's nice that he's off the golf course. It's nice that he's sitting in a cold, dark cell.

Speaker 50 But do prosecutors have enough new evidence to put Blackthorne away for life?

Speaker 12 I'm not going to go into all the specifics of the evidence at that time. We need to do that in a court of law.

Speaker 30 Coming up next, the murder trial of Alan Blackthorne.

Speaker 25 Damn it, I'm going to prove myself innocent.

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Speaker 42 Ever since Sheila Bellish's body was found on November 7th, 1997, her ex-husband has been a suspect in her murder.

Speaker 54 You were accused of being responsible for your ex-wife's death.

Speaker 30 What do you say to that?

Speaker 14 And from the beginning,

Speaker 20 Blackthorne has maintained his innocence.

Speaker 24 You can look me in the eye and say, I had nothing to do with this.

Speaker 27 I had absolutely nothing to do with this, period.

Speaker 44 Okay. How do you check? How do you check?

Speaker 39 Now,

Speaker 17 two and a half years after Sheila's death, Alan, do you have anything to say?

Speaker 42 The murder trial of Alan Blackthorne begins in San Antonio, Texas.

Speaker 26 This is really it. I mean, I've waited for this for so long, and finally, the day was here.
The day was here that he was going to be tried for murder.

Speaker 42 The month-long trial was held here in federal court, where no cameras are allowed.

Speaker 42 Prosecutors presented the jury with more than 400 pieces of evidence they claimed linked Alan Blackthorne to the murder of his ex-wife.

Speaker 68 It was really difficult.

Speaker 31 For the jury, it was a complicated puzzle.

Speaker 47 We had to piece it back together in order for for it to make sense.

Speaker 70 Today, only one person took to the stand, and that one person was Daniel Rocha.

Speaker 42 The chief witness against Blackthorne was his old golfing buddy, Danny Rocha.

Speaker 8 I'm the only way they're going to get to Alan Blackthorne. They know that.
Oh, we're clear.

Speaker 42 Already convicted and sentenced to life for his role in the killing, Rocha was the only member of the murder conspiracy who had face-to-face contact with Blackthorne.

Speaker 54 Do you believe that Alan Blackthorne is just as responsible for Sheila's murder as you are?

Speaker 8 Of course, he's more responsible. I was just helping a friend.
I was just kind of passing this information on.

Speaker 42 In three days of testimony, Rocha fingered Blackthorne as the mastermind and financier of the murder plot. But would the jury believe Rocha, a man who had lied to investigators in the past?

Speaker 47 After his testimony, I said, thought to myself, if this is second day of testimony and no further questions, stays in trouble.

Speaker 79 We knew he lied. We knew he he had the capability of lying.
So we heard what he said and we took certain statements and they had to be backed up by fact.

Speaker 7 Prosecutors set out to do just that.

Speaker 42 They portrayed Alan Blackthorne as a man so obsessed with his ex-wife Sheila, he was willing to pay $50,000 to have her badly beaten or killed.

Speaker 8 Is it on? Should I make face for it?

Speaker 36 All he needed was Sheila's new address in Sarasota.

Speaker 7 Witnesses were called to show that Blackthorne would stop at nothing to get it.

Speaker 31 Chuck Chambers took the stand.

Speaker 23 Chuck, when did Alan Blackthorne first get in touch with you?

Speaker 22 Remember, he was the Florida private investigator hired by Alan Blackthorne.

Speaker 71 He was very precise in what he wanted, cold, straightforward, non-emotional.

Speaker 71 Find her, I want her found.

Speaker 41 Another witness, a former employee of Blackthorne's, testified that he asked her to come to this church in Sarasota, where Sheila Bellish attended services.

Speaker 42 Blackthorne told the woman to follow Sheila home and write down her address.

Speaker 20 There was more.

Speaker 42 The jury heard a series of recorded telephone conversations in which Blackthorne, posing as a bookie.

Speaker 6 I do bet.

Speaker 67 I'm trying to be as discreet as I can be.

Speaker 42 Called a bail bonds company trying to get Sheila's new address.

Speaker 67 I'm not asking you to release any information to me. All I'm trying to find out is, have they registered the address with you? Can you give me that information?

Speaker 42 Blackthorne didn't know that this company routinely recorded its phone calls.

Speaker 39 And who am I freaking worse? This guy personally.

Speaker 67 My name's Al.

Speaker 4 And prosecutors say

Speaker 42 Blackthorne even lied to his own daughter, Daryl, to get Sheila's address.

Speaker 80 She was like, oh, I need the address. And I'm like, why do you need it? And he was like, because I'm going to come visit you this Christmas and going to come see you and spend some time with you.

Speaker 42 A promise that Blackthorne couldn't possibly have kept since he had given up all parental rights to his daughters, agreeing to have nothing to do with them ever again.

Speaker 79 What bothered me was he was so adamant about getting that address that he manipulated his daughter in telling her, I will visit you at Christmas, which he knew full well he couldn't do.

Speaker 42 When Alan Blackthorne took the stand, he testified that he wanted Sheila's address for a very different reason, to protect his daughters.

Speaker 42 Blackthorne told the jurors that his girls were being physically abused by Sheila and Jamie.

Speaker 27 He kept saying that he loved his children so much.

Speaker 27 This is why he was involved in the whole case, because of his children and children here and children there.

Speaker 27 And evidence was presented to me that I didn't think he meant what he said about his children.

Speaker 20 Jurors also had trouble with Blackthorne's demeanor during his testimony.

Speaker 18 He was very mechanical.

Speaker 40 It was like it was very staged.

Speaker 79 It was like he had been scripted.

Speaker 47 Voice was even killed, never high, never low, never raised an eyebrow, took a direct stare, blinked barely. I mean, it was

Speaker 47 very strange.

Speaker 42 And the jurors say, with all those phone calls to Florida, there was one Blackthorne didn't make that troubled them.

Speaker 79 He didn't call and check on his kids. Are you okay? Did they get hurt? Did they, were they hurt by the killer?

Speaker 41 Despite all of this, some jurors weren't convinced it added up to murder.

Speaker 68 I wasn't sure that he had intended for her to die.

Speaker 22 I thought,

Speaker 68 just the way it was done, I thought, well, maybe he intended for her to get hurt.

Speaker 65 We will have a hung jury on this count

Speaker 65 before we feel we just are going along with it.

Speaker 47 We need to be absolutely sure.

Speaker 54 Coming up on 48 hours.

Speaker 49 This jury has been deliberating for over a week now, for more than 30 hours.

Speaker 19 The jury appears to be deadlocked.

Speaker 68 You may feel like he's guilty.

Speaker 79 He may look guilty, but the government has to show that he's guilty.

Speaker 26 My biggest concern was this son of a bitch was going to get off. That this son of a bitch was going to walk.

Speaker 42 That's next.

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Speaker 26 Even to this day, sometimes I go out to that grave and I stand there and I go,

Speaker 26 I still can't believe this is real.

Speaker 17 More than two and a half years have passed since Sheila Bellish was murdered in front of her four babies.

Speaker 42 And for her husband, Jamie, I didn't know what was going to happen.

Speaker 11 The jury's deliberation in its fourth day felt like an eternity.

Speaker 26 I was thinking we're headed for a hung jury.

Speaker 47 We need to be absolutely sure.

Speaker 19 Jurors had spent more than 30 hours poring over the evidence.

Speaker 8 There were still a few that were undecided.

Speaker 34 Then we took another hour.

Speaker 47 Then we took another hour. And based on what was presented, testimony and evidence, we came to decisions.

Speaker 66 This is breaking news.

Speaker 49 The verdict is guilty. Guilty on both federal counts.
I watched Alan Blackthorne's face as they read the verdict. He sat there, stone-faced, cold as could be, had no expression whatsoever.

Speaker 26 I jumped up and down and kept saying, yes, it was almost like my team went in the Super Bowl.

Speaker 30 But why did Alan Blackthorne, a man who seemed to have it all?

Speaker 20 A beautiful home, a beautiful wife and children, pay to have Sheila murdered.

Speaker 79 Once she took those kids out of the state, state, he'd had it. That was it.
He was just going to, he was just going to kill her because

Speaker 79 those were his kids and he wasn't going to allow her to take advantage of him like that.

Speaker 68 If he didn't do it, how did Rocha get the address? Unless Blackthorne gave Rocha the address, the chances that he could have got it otherwise were very slim. So that eliminated

Speaker 68 most reasonable doubt.

Speaker 79 He was blinded by his hate. He didn't think he was going to get caught.

Speaker 47 He was a gambler, a risk-taker.

Speaker 79 He was Alan Blackthorne. Nothing was going to happen to him.

Speaker 47 Yeah, and he felt that something happened.

Speaker 47 In my mind, I'll find a way out of it. I always have.
I always come on top.

Speaker 36 On the same day Blackthorne was found guilty in San Antonio,

Speaker 42 in a Florida courtroom, an incredibly dramatic moment.

Speaker 24 What relationship were you to Sheila Bellish?

Speaker 29 Sheila Bellish was my beloved wife, sir.

Speaker 42 For the first time, Jamie Bellish confronted Joey Del Toro, the man who actually shot Sheila in the face and cut her throat.

Speaker 29 Mr. Del Toro, I don't know if you've ever seen these pictures of what you did to my wife.

Speaker 29 I'd like to show them to your family.

Speaker 29 Does your family realize that when you stabbed her in the neck, that the blade of the knife bent on her spinal column? You are a worthless coward with no remorse in your heart.

Speaker 29 Your Honor, put this cowardly, worthless animal in a cage where he can rot away.

Speaker 9 Moments later, Joey Del Toro was sentenced to life in prison with no chance ever for parole.

Speaker 55 Jamie,

Speaker 8 you're right.

Speaker 8 I do deserve to die.

Speaker 55 And I am what you...

Speaker 55 what you told me and what you set up me.

Speaker 55 I am.

Speaker 4 It was finally over.

Speaker 42 Everyone involved involved in the conspiracy to murder Sheila Bellish, including its mastermind, was now behind bars.

Speaker 30 Alan Blackthorne will be sentenced to life without parole in November.

Speaker 26 It's satisfying for me. It's satisfying for my entire family, Sheila's entire family.

Speaker 20 Including Sheila's mother, Jean Smith.

Speaker 34 Can Sheila rest in peace now? Yes.

Speaker 50 She's smiling today.

Speaker 76 Sheila's smiling today.

Speaker 11 But for the babies, the quads, just as for their mother, comes with a terrible cost.

Speaker 26 There's going to be recitals and there's going to be graduations and there's going to be

Speaker 26 weddings where there's going to be an empty place

Speaker 26 and there'll be an empty spot in their heart. And as they grow up, I'll tell them, I'll tell them about her

Speaker 6 and

Speaker 26 what a wonderful woman she was.

Speaker 59 Alan Blackthorne died in prison. Samuel Gonzalez was released from prison in 2014.

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Speaker 84 Dearest Eva, I think about you all the time. Once I find you and your daughter, then I will kill you both.

Speaker 56 Those words and those threats were absolute psychological terrorism.

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