Scott Erskine

In April 2004 Erskine went before a second jury to decide his punishment for the murder. This jury returned a verdict of death. On September 1, 2004, a California judge affirmed the jury's verdict and gave Erskine the death penalty. He was transported to San Quentin six days later.

In September 2003, Erskine went on trial for the two murders. The jurors were shown photos of the crime scene: Sellers was at the entrance of the makeshift fort hanging from a castor bean tree branch. He was naked from the waist down, his legs and arms bound with rope, and his mouth gagged. His genitals showed obvious signs of sexual assault, and a noose was tied around his neck.

On October 1, 2003, the jury found Erskine guilty of murder; however, they could not agree on the sentence. Eleven jurors voted for the death penalty, while one juror voted for life without parole. The judge declared a mistrial on the penalty phase.

In March 2001, the San Diego Cold Case squad reopened the investigation of the unsolved 1993 murders of nine-year-old Jonathan Sellers and 13-year-old Charlie Keever. The police tested cotton swabs taken from Keever's mouth at the time of death, that contained semen. The DNA sample was entered into CODIS, and was matched to Erskine.

In 1993, Erskine invited a woman, who was waiting for the bus, into his home and held her hostage for several days, repeatedly raping and sodomizing her before letting her go. He was quickly arrested. He was convicted of rape and kidnapping, required to register as a sex offender, and sentenced to 70 years in prison. As a convicted sex offender, Erskine had to submit his DNA to a database.

While awaiting the start of his trial, Florida investigators matched Erskine's DNA in the unsolved case of 26-year-old Renee Baker, who was murdered on June 23, 1989. He was formally charged in 2003, but was not sentenced until August 2004. Erskine, who lived in Palm Beach County, Florida, at the time, admitted to raping and killing Baker, and was sentenced to life without parole.

In 1980, while on his way to interview for a camp counselor's position, Erskine beat a 14-year-old boy unconscious during an attempted rape. He also raped another inmate while imprisoned. Erskine begged the San Diego judge at the time to spare him from adult prison. Despite his mother's pleas to send her son to a mental institution, Erskine was sentenced to four years in prison; he was paroled in 1984.

Scott Thomas Erskine (born December 22, 1962) is an American serial killer on California's death row, convicted in 2003 for the 1993 murder of two California boys. He is currently incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison.