A witness for the prosecution told jurors Thursday that Allen
Blackthorne fantasized about killing his ex-wife Sheila Bellush nearly five years before her body was found.
A former business partner of Blackthorne's testified Blackthorne asked him "not to say anything" to anyone else before confiding "he had the contacts to have Sheila taken to Mexico and she wouldn't
return."
Federal prosecutors charged Blackthorne, 45, in January with murder
for hire and interstate domestic violence in the Bellush murder. The mother of six, including quadruplets, was found shot and stabbed in the kitchen of her Sarasota home more than 2 1/2 years ago. The date was a chilly Friday, Nov. 7, 1997.
Michael McGraw still works for the Vancouver, Washington-based company Blackthorne helped found. RS Medical makes, rents and sells a special muscle stimulator. McGraw says last year RS Medical earned $26 million.
Blackthorne's current wife, Maureen, still draws about $750,000 in interest from the venture. McGraw says he visited San Antonio every 6 to 8 weeks in 1992 and stayed with Blackthorne. He described Blackthorne's post-divorce relationship with Bellush as "kind of a hostile environment, a battleground. Nothing physical. It just wasn't very friendly." He says he took Blackthorne's claim that he could make Bellush disappear "seriously."
But when cross-examined by the defense McGraw admitted he "didn't take any action" and call police. Earlier, the attorney who represented Bellush during her 1987 divorce read Bellush's own words from a deposition aloud. Bellush told a court reporter Blackthorne warned her if anything ever happened to the kids "I'll make sure you never walk again, your face is maimed."
Federal Judge Ed Prado repeatedly cautioned jurors not every accusation put on paper during a
divorce deposition is the truth.
Family law attorney, Mary Fenlon, helped Bellush battle Blackthorne over custody and child support for their two daughters, now 16-year-old Stevie and 15-year-old Daryl. Blackthorne filed nearly a half-dozen motions. Some
he filed on his own behalf without an attorney.
Within a year of the divorce Blackthorne filed to modify child support. Bellush did not respond to the filing so the court just knocked down the monthly payments form $1,250 a month to $350.
During one of his final custody challenges, Fenlon says Blackthorne served Bellush with papers the night before her wedding to Jamie Bellush, who later become the father of her quadruplets. The hearing was supposed to
take place during the honeymoon. But Fenlon, Bellush's attorney and bridesmaid at the time, had it postponed.
The defense says Blackthorne did face a financial hardship just after his breakup with Bellush and needed to cut child support. Lead Attorney Richard Lubin countered that hostile words in a bitter divorce don't make a
man a murderer. But the prosecution argues it gives that man a motive - revenge.
Both sides seem to believe the trial is going well for them. The question is how much of the divorce documents from a decade ago can the jury handle and really digest. This case requires a leap of faith from the
jury for either the defense or the prosecution. The prosecution has yet to provide any strong, direct evidence. Even the checks from Blackthorne to star-witness Danny Rocha were not unusual among gamblers. The defense must also face the fact that the jury may not worry about the lack of a "smoking gun" and simply rely on logic or dislike for the Texas millionaire who could buy his ticket to freedom.
