Variable clouds with scattered thunderstorms. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 51F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%..
Variable clouds with scattered thunderstorms. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 51F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Updated: April 11, 2026 @ 9:25 pm
San Joaquin County serial killer Wesley Shermantine Jr. was sentenced to death by a Santa Clara County jury today after being convicted of four murders stretching back to 1984.
Shermantine, 34, was convicted on Feb. 14 of the November 1984 shotgun killings of Paul Cavanaugh, 31, and Howard King, 35, in Stockton, the 1985 death of Stockton high school girl Chevelle "Chevy" Wheeler, 16, and the 1998 death of Clements, Calif. resident Cyndi Vanderheiden, 25.
The five-man, seven-woman jury deliberated for more than four days before reaching today's verdict. As recently as yesterday, prosecutor Thomas Testa was predicting the jury would hang over whether or not to impose the death penalty.
The bodies of Wheeler and Vanderheiden have never been found. Shermantine had offered to reveal the location of the two bodies if his two sons are given $20,000 in reward money, but prosecutors refused.
"He was a pig from the beginning to even offer it but he got what he deserved," said Paula Wheeler, Chevy Wheeler's mother.
Testa said he is willing to ask the judge to set aside the death penalty and sentence Shermantine to life in prison without parole if Shermantine will reveal the location of the two bodies and information about other murders he is suspected of having committed. Shermantine has refused this offer.
Authorities continue to investigate Shermantine in connection with a number of other deaths stretching all the way to Utah. Shermantine has bragged at various times of killing between 18 and 22 people, according to Testa.
The trial began in November in Santa Clara. It was moved from San Joaquin County because of extensive media coverage the case received there.<
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Dave Cohen said:
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