Stockton man convicted of killing woman during 2020 burglary
SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY – A Stockton man was found guilty of breaking into a home and killing a 57-year-old woman in 2020.
The San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office said Steven Martinez, 59 of Stockton, was found guilty of murder and residential burglary. The conviction also comes with two special circumstance allegations of murder in the commission of a burglary and murder in the commission of torture.
Mary Sellars was found dead in her home in the 7000 block of Village Green Drive in Stockton in early February 2020.
Martinez was arrested days later after police found a black truck torched in a nearby Stockton neighborhood. Police were searching for the truck for several days as it was stolen from Sellars' home.
Neighbors said Sellars was a caring woman who would always make people laugh.