Select by gender or name

Background

Sean Richard Sellers was born in Corcoran, California, on May 18th, 1969. His father was reportedly an alcoholic, and his parents divorced when he was three years old.

His mother, Vonda, later married Paul Lee Bellofatto. Bellofatto was a trucker and often took Vonda on the road with him, leaving Sean stuck with relatives.

The family also moved around 30 times, making it hard for Sean to make friends.

His mother and grandfather allegedly physically abused him. When he was 12 or 13, he was still wetting the bed, so he was forced to wear a diaper. If he wet the bed multiple days in a row, his uncle would force him to walk around with a soiled diaper on his head.

Sean was also called a “wimp” because he didn’t like hunting or harming animals.

By the time he was 15, he was worshipping satan and using drugs. He started to harm himself and preserved the blood in the fridge so he could drink it later.

By age 16, he lived with his mother and stepfather in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Sean Sellers Crime Spree

On September 7th, 1985, 17-year-old Richard Howard drove 16-year-old Sean to a nearby convenience store. Sean shot and killed 32-year-old clerk Robert Paul Bower. Afterward, Howard helped Sean hide the weapon.

On March 5th, 1986, Sean decided to kill again. He shot and killed his 32-year-old mother and 43-year-old stepfather as they slept. He tried to make it appear like an intruder had committed the crime.

Afterward, he went to Howard’s home and told him what he had done.

Sellers thought he could outsmart the cops, but he was arrested the day after the double homicide.

He claimed he was angry that his mother had disapproved of his relationship with his girlfriend. He also admitted to practicing an occult ritual before the shootings.

He eventually confessed to being behind Bowers’s murder.

Legal Proceedings

Howard was charged with first-degree murder in Bowers’s death, but the charges were dropped, and he pleaded guilty to accessory to murder.

He was given a five-year deferred sentence, meaning the conviction would be removed from his record if he stayed out of trouble for five years.

He also had to testify against Sean. When that day came, Howard told the jury Sean said he “wanted to see what it feels like to kill somebody.”

Sean also took the stand. He told the jury he was a practicing Satanist and he was possessed by the devil when he committed his crimes.

His attorney argued that the game Dungeons and Dragons influenced his behavior, which Sellers denied in interviews years later.

The jury rejected Seller’s defense and convicted him of murder. They had the option to sentence him to life with the opportunity of parole or death; life without parole was not an option at that time.

One juror felt he would get out in his late 20s or early 30s if they gave him life with parole, so instead, they chose death. They didn’t think he would get executed because Oklahoma had gone two decades without an execution.

Life In Prison

While in prison, Sellers became a Christian and started a religious ministry. He also began painting and writing. He got married in 1995, although it was annulled two years later.

He also made videos trying to help kids stay away from drugs and Satan.

Days before his execution, he stated,
“I’ve done good with my life – nearly half of my life – since. But maybe the world doesn’t care what someone like me became. Perhaps my regret doesn’t mean anything.

He hoped he would be saved at the last minute, but his final appeals were rejected.

Execution

On February 4th, 1999, he spent the day visiting with several friends. He had Chinese food as his last meal before he was marched to the death chamber.

In his last moments he said this to the relatives of his victims:

“All the people that are hating me right now and are here waiting to see me die, when you wake up in the morning, you’re not going to feel any different. You’re going to hate me just as much tomorrow as tonight.
“When you wake up and nothing has changed inside, reach out to God and He will be there for you. Reach out to God and He will heal you. Let Him touch your hearts. Don’t hate all your lives.”

The execution proceeded, and he was injected with a lethal cocktail of drugs.

As the end of his life got closer, he sang, “Set my spirit free that I might praise Thee. Set my spirit free that I might worship Thee.”

He was pronounced dead at 12:17 a.m.

He was the first person executed for crimes committed at 16 since Leonard Melvin Shockley in 1959. Shockley was just 16 years old when he killed a shopkeeper and the mother of three, 39-year-old Sarah Hearne, in Dorchester County, Maryland, on January 16th, 1958. He was 17 years old when he was executed on April 10th, 1959.