Texas Man Found Guilty in Plot to Kill Mother of Quadruplets

A Texas man was convicted of murder Friday for his role in the slaying of a woman whose teenage daughter found her dead on her kitchen floor with her 2-year-old quadruplets nearby.

The jury found Daniel Rocha guilty of first-degree murder and a lesser charge of conspiracy to commit murder in the third degree for the Nov. 7, 1997, killing of Sheila Bellush, 35. She had moved to Florida with her six children to start a new life.

Sentencing for 29-year-old Rocha of San Antonio was scheduled for late February. He faces up to life in prison.

“This is tragic for everybody involved. But the real tragedy is six kids that don’t have a mother anymore,” said the victim’s widower, Jamie Bellush.

Prosecutors say Rocha was the middleman in a plot hatched in Texas to kill Bellush two months after she and her family moved to Sarasota. She was shot in the face and stabbed twice.

Prosecutors say her wealthy ex-husband, Allen Blackthorne, told Rocha that she was abusing their two teenage daughters and he wanted to regain custody. Rocha’s lawyer said Rocha intended only for her to be beaten.

But prosecutors said Rocha made arrangements to hire someone to harm Sheila Bellush as a favor to Blackthorne, his golfing pal. Blackthorne has not been charged and denies any involvement.

Samuel Gonzales pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and testified in return for a 19-year prison term. Alleged hit man Jose Luis Del Toro is jailed in Mexico and is fighting extradition.

After a bitter divorce, Sheila Bellush was granted custody of their two daughters, and the girls were adopted by her second husband.

Daughter Stevie Bellush, 14, testified that her mother was “loving and understanding” and never abused her or her 13-year-old sister. It was Stevie who found her mother’s body, with the quadruplets, unharmed but covered in blood, nearby.