SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- The former Imperial Beach man convicted of molesting and strangling two young boys in 1993 has died of coronavirus, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.
Scott Thomas Erskine, 57, was sentenced to death in San Diego County in 2004 for the first-degree murders of 9-year-old Jonathan Sellers and 13-year-old Charles Keever.
The California Department of Corrections said Erskine died from complications due to the virus at an outside hospital. He was on death row at San Quentin.
Both Sellers and Keever disappeared while on a bicycle ride near their South Bay homes. Erskine lured the victims to an igloo-shaped “fort” of brush before molesting and strangling them.
In March of 2001, Erskine was serving a 70-year sentence for raping a San Diego woman when newly-tested DNA linked him to the murder of the boys.
Erskine also pleaded guilty to a second-degree murder for the Florida slaying of 26-year-old Renee Baker. He was sentenced to life without parole for that murder.
City News Service contributed to this report.
