Sarasota Herald Tribune 

January 16, 1999
Section: A SECTION
Page: 1A
Jose Luis Jimenez STAFF WRITER

Daniel Alex Rocha gambled with life and lost.

The San Antonio native was convicted Friday of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit third-degree murder for his role in the brutal slaying of Sheila Bellush, a Sarasota mother of six, including quadruplets. Jurors deliberated for more than six hours before reaching their verdict. The only sentence allowed under Florida law is life in prison, which Circuit Court Judge Nancy Donnellan will impose at a hearing in late February.

Bellush's widower, Jamie Bellush, screamed ``Yes!'' as the verdict was announced; the rest of her family cried.

``(Rocha) gambled with prosecutors and threw his life away,'' said Jamie Bellush, who called Rocha a bookie.

Following the verdict, state prosecutors explained why the man they identified throughout the trial as the person who set the plan in motion to harm Bellush is still free. The name of her ex-husband, Allen Blackthorne, came up so often in the trial that a juror asked the judge why Blackthorne has not been arrested.

``Blackthorne may have ordered her beaten, but Rocha may have ordered the murder,'' chief assistant state attorney Henry Lee said following Rocha's conviction. ``Exactly what (Blackthorne's) involvement is is open to some question.''

The wealthy San Antonio businessman remains a target of the investigation.  Even as prosecutors fought in court this week to convict Rocha, outside court they struggled to make a deal with him to help them make a case against Blackthorne.

Rocha, 29, was the only man to speak directly with Blackthorne, and prosecutors wanted him to testify against his former golfing partner. Three times they gave him a lie detector test. Three times, they said, Rocha lied.

Also, investigators said they never found evidence to back Rocha's versions of events.

``We had high hopes of bringing this investigation to a close,'' Lee said.  ``We were all in there hoping (Rocha) would pass, but he failed.''

Jamie Bellush said he is confident Blackthorne is involved in his wife's murder and will be brought to justice.

``When (Blackthorne) could not control Sheila anymore, he had to kill her,'' he said.

Hearing the verdict, Rocha slumped and frowned. His family, seeming to be in a state of shock, made no comment.

Later Friday night, Rocha's mother, Laura, called it ``one of the worst days of my life.''

Prosecutors say Rocha, 29, plotted to kill Bellush with his friend Samuel Gonzales and Gonzales' cousin, Jose Luis Del Toro Jr.

Gonzales, 28, in a plea agreement, received a reduced sentence of 19 years in prison for the testimony that convicted Rocha.

Key to the prosecution's case was Gonzales' recollection of a conversation between the three men at a San Antonio golf club three days before the Nov. 7, 1997, murder.

After that conversation, prosecutors say Del Toro drove from Texas to Sarasota and ambushed Bellush in her Gulf Gate home. Del Toro shot and stabbed the mother of six while her quadruplets, then age 2, were inside the home.

In return, Del Toro, 22, received approximately $4,000. Gonzales and Rocha were promised jobs at a golf course Blackthorne planned to develop, Gonzales said.

Del Toro, 22, fled to Mexico shortly after the murder and remains in a Mexico City jail fighting extradition. His return is in the hands of the U.S. Justice Department and Mexican authorities.

Rocha's silence allowed attorneys to begin closing statements early Friday, with a passionate Charlie Roberts telling jurors that Rocha was responsible for Del Toro's actions.

``Everything that happened in that house was as a result of the assistance . . . of that man over there,'' Roberts said, pointing at Rocha. ``When you tell someone it would be easiest to shoot her to get your money, you are guilty of first-degree murder.''

Defense attorney Jack McGill reiterated that his client had no intent nor motive to kill Sheila Bellush. She was supposed to be scared or roughed up.

``All of the conversation had been to beat her or scare her,'' McGill said.

But the jury of seven men and five women seemed swayed by Roberts' argument in convicting Rocha. To find him guilty of first-degree murder, jurors had to be convinced that Rocha helped or hired Del Toro to perform the crime, Lee said.

But McGill hinted that Rocha's conviction on a third-degree murder charge was an inconsistency that might be grounds for an appeal.

``If you conspired to commit third-degree murder, how can you be a principal to first-degree murder?'' McGill asked.

Jurors declined to comment on the high-profile case as they left the courthouse in the evening.

Rocha will be returned to Texas, where he still faces a charge of solicitation to commit capital murder.

``If it weren't for Rocha, Sheila Bellush would still be alive,'' Roberts said.

Contact Jose Luis Jimenez at 957-5149.

Caption: Sheila Bellush was shot and stabbed to death in her Sarasota

Daniel Alex Rocha listens to the jury's verdict Friday.

STAFF PHOTO/BARRY McCARTHY
Jamie Bellush, Sheila Bellush's widower, reads from the Book of Psalms as he waits for the jury's verdict to be read Friday evening.