The evidence and Allen Blackthorne

Nearly three years after the murder of Sheila Bellush, her ex-husband goes on trial.

By LEANORA MINAI

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 3, 2000

The question came up halfway through Danny Rocha's trial last year, before jurors even began deliberating whether he was guilty of conspiring to murder Sheila Bellush.

[AP] Starting Monday, federal prosecutors will unveil their murder case against Allen Blackthorne in San Antonio, Texas. They say his motive was revenge.

Jurors scribbled a quick note to the judge:

"Why hasn't Allen Blackthorne been arrested?"

Blackthorne was the suspected mastermind behind the plot to kill Mrs. Bellush, his ex-wife, in her Sarasota home in 1997.

She was shot in the face and cut 33 times in front of her quadruplet toddlers, who were left to play as their mother bled to death on the kitchen floor.

It was not until Rocha, a golfing buddy of Blackthorne's, stopped changing his story and began cooperating with the government that investigators were able to get a federal grand jury indictment against Blackthorne.

Starting Monday, nearly three years after the murder, federal prosecutors will unveil their case against Blackthorne in San Antonio, Texas, exposing his business dealings, violent past, a string of marriages and a bitter custody fight with Mrs. Bellush.

Prosecutors will cite revenge as his motive: "He wanted to get even with her," says FBI agent Michael E. Appleby.

Blackthorne, who will turn 45 on the trial's opening day, is charged with conspiring to commit a murder for hire and arranging an act of domestic violence across state lines. He faces up to life in prison with no chance of parole and a fine of up to $500,000.

The heart of United States of America vs. Allen Blackthorne is Rocha, a bookmaker who golfed with Blackthorne three times a week and is now serving a life sentence for his role in Mrs. Bellush's death.

"That's the only way they're ever going to indict him is with me," Rocha, 30, said during an interview with the St. Petersburg Times before federal agents arrested Blackthorne earlier this year. "They don't have any evidence that links him to the crime other than my testimony."

Florida prosecutors have described Rocha's statements as unworthy of belief. They were forced to drop their case against Blackthorne after Rocha kept changing his story. Defense lawyers, who say Blackthorne had nothing to do with the killing, call Rocha a liar. He has been described as a con man who wanted to blackmail Blackthorne, a Texas businessman who earned nearly $700,000 in 1998.

"I look at it as what do they have that suggests Allen was involved," says Richard Lubin, Blackthorne's lead attorney. "And the answer to that is nothing but Danny Rocha."

'Where's Mommy?'

On Nov. 7, 1997, Stevie Bellush hopped off the school bus and walked inside her family's new home in Sarasota. She found her siblings -- quadruplet toddlers Joey, Timmy, Frankie and Courtney -- crying, wearing only life vests splattered with blood.

"Where's Mommy?" asked Stevie, then 13.

She searched room to room and out by the pool before finally looking in the kitchen. A trail of blood stained the floor; a telephone dangled off the hook.

"Mom? Mom?" Stevie pleaded, kneeling beside her 35-year-old mother. A blackened bullet hole pierced Mrs. Bellush's right cheekbone. Her throat was slashed, causing her to bleed to death.

Stevie would tell Sarasota County authorities early on that she suspected her father was involved.

"My dad just doesn't like my mom," she said, "as dumb as that sounds."

Blackthorne has consistently denied any involvement in the murder. "I'm innocent," he told the Times last August. "I really am."

Lubin believes him.

"Of course I believe Allen is innocent," he says. "I think it's obvious to anyone."

Sheila Walsh married Blackthorne in 1983, and they had two daughters, Stevie and Daryl. But the marriage -- her first, his third -- soured and they went through a bitter divorce in 1987. The thousands of pages of documents in a San Antonio divorce court include one exchange that may come back to haunt Blackthorne at his trial.

"You know what I've told you before," Blackthorne told Mrs. Bellush during their marriage, according to court records.

"About having me taken care of?" she asked.

"That's right," he said. "I'll make sure you never walk again."

During a divorce proceeding, Mrs. Bellush talked about how Blackthorne beat her. "All of a sudden, he was on me, all over me, slugging me with his fist." She told how she feared him. "No matter what I did, I always had to deal with the threat of having my face knocked in." She described his threats. "He's told me he would kill me or have somebody do it, that he was in the position that he could have it taken care of."

Even after the divorce was final, they still fought over the girls. In the summer of 1997, Blackthorne complained that his ex-wife beat Daryl and was not complying with arranged visits and weekly phone calls. During a court hearing, a doctor testified on behalf of Mrs. Bellush that visitation with Blackthorne should be supervised and not include overnights. The doctor also said he sexually abused Stevie.

The next day, Blackthorne voluntarily relinquished his parental rights to his daughters. Four months later, Mrs. Bellush moved to Sarasota with her husband, Jamie Bellush, to start fresh after allegations that the "Quad Mom" had beat Daryl hit newspapers.

Federal investigators say that given Blackthorne's history, "reasonable people" will conclude he was involved in the conspiracy to kill his ex-wife.

They say the links in the chain start with Blackthorne: He asked Rocha to find someone to hurt or kill her; he gave Rocha money, a photograph and an address. Rocha then approached his friend Sammy Gonzales, 29. And Gonzales turned to his cousin Jose Luis Del Toro, who, investigators say, drove from Texas to Florida and killed Mrs. Bellush.

"When the case comes down to it, the key is Rocha," says Stephen Crawford, a former federal prosecutor who is now a defense lawyer in Tampa. He is not involved in the Blackthorne case. "And the more they can sever that chain link between Blackthorne and Rocha, it may create enough doubt for a jury not to convict him."

On the day of Mrs. Bellush's murder, Blackthorne was 1,200 miles away teeing off for 18 holes of golf -- with his good buddy Rocha.

Feds have the advantages

Legal experts say federal prosecutors have the advantages in pursuing Blackthorne in U.S. District Court that state prosecutors would not have.

In federal court, defense attorneys cannot take depositions of government witnesses, and they are limited in what evidence they get before trial. During some federal jury selections, defense attorneys don't talk to prospective jurors. The judge predominantly asks the questions.

"Prosecutors don't have to give you much," Lubin says. "They don't even have to give you a witness list. It's all very, very, very unfair."

If Blackthorne had been tried in a Florida court, as anticipated, state prosecutors would have had a tougher time proving premeditated murder. For a first-degree-murder conviction, the state would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Rocha was specifically hired by Blackthorne. Blackthorne could always plead that he never wanted his former wife to die.

"You flip over to the feds and all they have to show is he's going interstate to commit a crime of violence, so the standard of proof is going to be less," Crawford says. "The feds don't even have to prove the murder."

Federal prosecutors declined to be interviewed for this article. "We'll do our speaking in the courtroom," says Daryl Fields, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Bill Blagg in San Antonio.

Rocha is the primary source of information for federal prosecutors. Though Rocha changed his story and failed several polygraph questions pertaining to Blackthorne, he always implicated Blackthorne as the driving force behind the conspiracy, court documents say.

The way Rocha tells it, his involvement with the crime began months before the murder when he took a trip to Oregon to play golf with Blackthorne.

On the airplane, Blackthorne had too much to drink and talked with Rocha about having his ex-wife hurt or killed so he could regain custody, court documents say.

"(Blackthorne) discussed torturing her, breaking her legs, scarring her face," says Appleby, the FBI agent.

During the conversation, Rocha told Blackthorne that Mrs. Bellush could die.

"So be it," Blackthorne replied, according to court records.

When Mrs. Bellush left Texas with her husband and children in September 1997, she didn't tell her ex-husband she was moving. Blackthorne sent Rocha and Gonzales to her Texas home. Rocha looked in the windows, walked around the house to the pool and picked up the telephone.

"The phone was dead," says Appleby. Blackthorne hired a private investigator in Bradenton to track her down.

In exchange for his work, Rocha says he was promised money and a stake in a golf course Blackthorne bragged about developing in San Antonio. As payment, he first got two checks totaling $9,000 from Blackthorne before Mrs. Bellush was killed, Rocha told FBI agents. Investigators say $4,000 was for the deed; Blackthorne contends the entire amount was a payoff for a gambling debt.

"I think that'd be a pretty good way to veil a payment for a hit," Appleby says.

Blackthorne also offered a $50,000 incentive if she was killed, court documents say. Three days after the murder, he gave Rocha $10,000 cash. The money was meant for accused hitman Del Toro, records say, but he fled to Mexico. Instead, Rocha used the cash to hire his own attorney. From jail, Rocha wrote Blackthorne at his $1.4-million home in San Antonio. He disguised the envelope as legal mail addressing it, "B.K. Cow, c/o Law Office of Black and Ely."

Rocha told investigators that he and Blackthorne had a code name for the conspiracy: "Blackcow."

"Basically, he wanted money from Allen," Lubin says of Rocha's letter.

Is Rocha credible?

Lubin says the stories told by middlemen Rocha and Gonzales do not make logical sense. Blackthorne had no motive to kill Mrs. Bellush and did not owe her any money, he says. Custody was not an issue because he had given up up his parental rights of his own will.

"There is absolutely no evidence that Allen Blackthorne was mad at Sheila Bellush," Lubin told a judge during a hearing after Blackthorne's arrest. "It just wasn't worth it. He had a wife and children and new family and it just wasn't worth it to keep going after this."

Lubin refused to talk about what strategy he will use in the courtroom.

"I think I've got to play out my hand in the courtroom," he says, tossing a Top Flite golf ball in the air while sitting behind his antique wood desk.

He called Rocha and his testimony a joke and says his value as a witness is zero.

From Day One, state prosecutors in Florida wanted to strike a deal with Rocha in return for testimony implicating Blackthorne. But Rocha wanted less than the 19 years Gonzales got for pleading guilty to the same charge.

In one statement to Florida investigators, Rocha said, "I did not get involved in a murder for hire." In a later interview, Rocha said, "Sheila was never to be hurt. . . ."

Rocha's defense has been that he, Gonzales and Del Toro, 24, agreed to do harm to or scare Mrs. Bellush. The killing, Rocha says, was an independent act for which he should not be held responsible.

In the middle of his trial in Sarasota, Rocha wanted to strike a deal. Prosecutors, who had concerns about his credibility, arranged for a polygraph. Rocha was interviewed on the circumstances surrounding the murder. The questions were based on details Rocha provided.

"Did Allen Blackthorne tell you of the best way of doing it was to kill Sheila Bellush?" the polygraph examiner asked.

"Yes," Rocha replied.

He failed. The answer registered as deceptive.

He also failed on two other questions, including whether Blackthorne offered a $50,000 incentive.

"The link is Danny, and Danny's not terribly credible," says Henry Lee, chief assistant state attorney for Sarasota County. "That's the weakness in the case."

Federal prosecutors have asked the judge to exclude as evidence any mention of the polygraph and its results.

In hearings, Lubin has questioned the government's offering of favorable treatment to Rocha in return for his testimony. Under consideration is Rocha serving his life sentence in California, where his wife and three sons now live, instead of Florida. Also, there is talk of Rocha asking for his sentence to be reduced.

"I don't want to come out when I'm 70," he told the Times. "I've got little kids I want to come home to. There's got to be something we can work out."

In court, Blackthorne's lawyers might point to another suspect as the conspiracy initiator. Blackthorne has said Mrs. Bellush's widower, Jamie Bellush, in debt and wanting to cash in on his wife's life insurance, is behind the murder.

"Now I'm not suggesting anything by it except to tell you there are people that would suggest having a lot of life insurance and someone having serious debt are areas which should be explored," Lubin says.

Charlie Roberts, who prosecuted Rocha in Sarasota County Court, says there is no credible evidence pointing to Bellush. "To imply that Jamie Bellush had something to do with it," Roberts says, "is ridiculous."

State trial and civil suit

Blackthorne did not respond to written requests to be interviewed for this article. "He's very anxious to get this case under way," Lubin says, even though defense attorneys sought to delay the trial Wednesday. A judge denied the request Friday.

When asked whether Blackthorne would testify at his own trial, Lubin replied: "He might."

If he is acquitted, Blackthorne still faces an uphill battle. The Bexar County District Attorney will prosecute him on a state murder charge. And in civil court, Mrs. Bellush's widower has filed a $32-million wrongful death lawsuit against Blackthorne, his wife, Maureen, as well as the co-conspirators and accused killer.

Mrs. Blackthorne, who has not been charged with any crime, visits her husband twice a week for 40 minutes. They are separated by glass and a telephone. Lubin described their experience as a "pure nightmare." Their young sons, Lubin says, have visited their father.

"They don't understand why their daddy is in a cage," Lubin says.

Once a chain smoker, Blackthorne no longer smokes. He used to hit the links every day. Now he goes outside once a day and shares a cell. Recently, he was beaten up and put in the infirmary with "cuts and bruises," Lubin says.

"There was a big fight and Allen was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time," Lubin says.

Lubin and Blackthorne share one thing in common: golf. They played together in West Palm Beach before Blackthorne was indicted in Texas. Lubin will not say who won the round.

"Let's just say he's waiting to get out for a rematch."

-- Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. Leanora Minai covers crime and law enforcement for the Times and can be reached at (727) 893-8406.

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