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Saturday, November 22, 1997

Murder suspect to be returned to United States

By KELLEY SHANNON / Associated Press Writer

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- A man charged with killing the mother of quadruplets was being moved from Monterrey, Mexico, to Laredo, to be turned over to immigration officers and the Texas Rangers, authorities said Friday.

The Mexican Federal Judicial Police, accompanied by U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service agents from Monterrey, planned to drive Jose Luis Del Toro to the border, said Ray Dudley, INS spokesman in San Antonio.

Del Toro, 21, has been charged with murder in the Nov. 7 shooting death of Sheila Bellush, 35, in Sarasota, Fla.

Mrs. Bellush, the mother of 2-year-old quadruplets and two older children, was found in her home dead of a gunshot wound, her four toddlers crawling in her blood.

Because the United States does not have an extradition treaty with Mexico, Del Toro is being deported from that country as an illegal alien.

"They are deporting this gentlemen, who has been found to have been in the interior of Mexico for more than 72 hours without a visa," Dudley said.

Del Toro was being turned over to INS officials at the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge in Laredo, then he was to be interviewed by immigration agents to confirm his status as a U.S. citizen, Dudley said.

The Texas Rangers, an elite state law enforcement agency assisting Florida police in their murder investigation, headed to Laredo with a warrant for Del Toro's arrest, Dudley said.

Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange would not provide details Friday on when Del Toro would reach Texas or be handed over to the Texas Rangers.

"The rangers feel there are some security issues," she said. "They just want to make sure that it's done right."

The rangers planned to interview Del Toro after he arrived in Texas.

"I would imagine that the rangers would have some things to talk with him about," Ms. Mange said.

It was expected Del Toro would be brought to San Antonio, where two other men are in custody on murder conspiracy charges stemming from Mrs. Bellush's death, Dudley said.

Del Toro, a former Uvalde High School football player, was arrested Thursday evening in Monterrey, 235 miles south of Laredo, by Mexican police.

Police said Del Toro left fingerprints on a clothes dryer in Mrs. Bellush's home. A car he is believed to have driven from Texas to Florida was recovered in Austin. Police said they found a handgun and directions to Mrs. Bellush's home inside the car.

Del Toro had been serving a 30-day jail sentence on weekends in Austin before the slaying and was released from jail five days before Mrs. Bellush was killed.

Samuel Gonzales, 27, and Daniel Alex Rocha, 28, were arrested Monday in San Antonio on Florida warrants charging them with murder conspiracy in Mrs. Bellush's death.

Rocha was a golfing friend of Mrs. Bellush's ex-husband, Allen Blackthorne of San Antonio. Blackthorne, through his attorney Roy Barrera Jr., has denied involvement in the killing.