Judge rules out plea of not guilty by insanity, double-murderer to be sentenced for 2001 crime

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY, Calif. – District Attorney Dan Dow announced Friday that a judge found Stephen Arthur Deflaun, 64, legally sane when he shot and killed a man and a child in 2001.

On July 8, 2001, Deflaun shot and killed Stehen Donahue Wells, 37, and Jerry Rios, Jr., 11, at the Morro Bay State Park Campground, according to the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney's Office.

On Apr. 19, after a three-week trial, the jury found Deflaun guilty of two counts of first degree murder with the use of a firearm and one count of assault on a peace officer with a firearm, according to Dow.

"It is rare for a criminal case to take two decades to reach a resolution," said the DA's Office.

The DA's Office said a judge declared Deflaun incompetent to stand trial several months after his July 8, 2001, arrest.

Twenty years later, in December 2021, "Deflaun was found to have been restored to competence and the criminal prosecution was reinstated," said the DA's Office.

Deflaun entered "not guilty" and "not guilty by reason of insanity" pleas in June 2022, according to the DA's Office.

Dow said the jury found him guilty, so then Deflaun's defense team had to "prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Deflaun either (1) did not appreciate the nature and quality of his acts or (2) was unable to distinguish right from wrong when he shot the victims and assaulted the ranger."

On Friday, Apr. 28, San Luis Obispo County Superior Court Judge Jacquelyn Duffy found that Deflaun was legally sane during the double-murder.

Dow said Deflaun faces a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced on June 2, in Department 5 of the San Luis Obispo County Superior Court.

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