Death Sentence Upheld For Imperial Beach Child Strangler

SAN DIEGO COUNTY -- The California Supreme Court on May 23 upheld the death sentence for a former Imperial Beach man who molested and strangled two young boys in 1993 after luring them into an area near the Otay River bed.

It was 15 years ago when Scott Thomas Erskine, 56, was sentenced to death for the March 27, 1993, deaths of 13-year-old Charlie Keever and 9-year-old Jonathan Sellers, who disappeared while on a bicycle ride near their South Bay homes.

A jogger found their semi-nude bodies two days later.

Erskine has been serving a 70-year prison sentence for raping a San Diego woman when in March 2001, newly tested DNA evidence linked him to the boys' murders. The rape occurred in the summer of 1993, a few months after the boys were killed.

Erskine lured the victims into an igloo-shaped structure made of brush, tied them up and molested them before strangling them, authorities said. Jurors convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder and special circumstance allegations of torture, child molestation and multiple murders.

Bay City News contributed to this report.