On day 5 in the trial of Allen Blackthorne meant attorneys continued debating over Blackthorne's bitter divorce with his ex-wife, Sheila Bellush. Blackthorne, 45, faces federal murder for hire and interstate domestic violence charges in the Bellush murder.

Sheila Bellush, 35, was found shot and stabbed to death in her Sarasota home in November 1997. She left behind six children - a set of quadruplet toddlers by her second husband Jamie and two older daughters she shared with Blackthorne.

Bellush attorney Ken Nunley spent most of Friday on the witness stand. Nunley is the third attorney to represent Bellush since her divorce from Blackthorne more than a decade ago. Nunley helped Bellush settle her final custody conflict with Blackthorne. The bitter custody battle ended when Blackthorne decided to terminate his parental rights in July 1997, just a few months before Stevie Bellush came home from school to discover her mother's body.

Bellush later called on Ken Nunley when the state investigated her for abusing Stevie's sister, Daryl. He pointed out that the same attorneys who had previously represented Blackthorne, suddenly stepped forward to represent Daryl in her actions against her mother. The same attorneys' names surfaced on court records again when some former neighbors of Sheila Bellush stepped forward to adopt Daryl in the midst of the abuse investigation.

During cross examination Ken Nunley proved a formidable adversary for lead defense counsel Richard Lubin. Currently Nunley represents Jamie Bellush and the Bellush children in a wrongful death suit filed against all the players in the case including Allen Blackthorne, his wife Maureen and Blackthorne's former golfing partner Danny Rocha.

Last year Rocha started writing to Nunley once again trying to save his skin. Rocha suggested a deal to Nunley: he would point the finger at Blackthorne in exchange for being dropped from the wrongful death suit. When Lubin asked Nunley if that was the deal, Nunley would only answer that's what Rocha had written in the letter. Nunley refused to recall any specific conversations he had with Rocha during a visit at a Florida prison and during five or six phone calls that followed.

Nunley made a shocking statement when he said he talked to Rocha because he "was concerned about Danny." Concerned about a man his client, Jamie Bellush, despises? Concerned about the man who hired someone to go to Bellush's house and murder Sheila? Nunley said, "I was in contact with his (Danny Rocha's) family. I offered them my prayers."

In the end the defense reminded the court about the wrongful death suit seeking $32 million from a number of "conspirators." Mant believe the suit if after Blackthorne's money, since the rest of the alleged and convicted players remain in jail.

When asked what he wanted from Blackthorne, Nunley, in his slow southern drawl and with his quick wit, told Lubin "I'm asking for everything he's got."

Nunley and his law firm stand to receive between a 30 and 40 percent of any settlement.