Death For Drifter in Child Slay

D E L  R I O, Texas, Sept. 20 -- A drifter who confessed to slashing thethroat of a 13-year-old girl in her bedroom during the night wassentenced to death today.

Tommy Lynn Sells, 36, who authorities say has confessed to atleast a dozen murders across the country, was sent to death row byjurors who deliberated for about two and a half hours. Their onlyother option was life in prison.

One juror said he doesn’t believe anything could ease thefamily’s pain.

“A horrible thing happened,” Dwight Brown said. “There’s nogood in it. Nothing will bring back that little girl.”

Damning ConfessionSells, a former carnival worker, admitted to killing KayleneHarris on Dec. 31 after breaking into her family’s mobile home nearthe border city of Del Rio, 160 miles west of San Antonio.

Jurors convicted him of capital murder on Monday after findingthat he climbed through a window intending to sexually assault thegirl, and then killed her.

Sells also was convicted of attempted murder for slitting theneck of Kaylene’s friend, Krystal Surles, who had been visitingfrom Kansas at the time of the attacks.

Kaylene’s father, whom Sells had befriended at church, had beenout of town that night. Her mother and three other childrensleeping in the house were not hurt.

Krystal, now 11, testified during the trial, which began Sept.12, that she tried to remain still and silent on a top bunk as shewatched Sells cut the neck of her friend.

Suspect in Other SlayingsKaylene, who also was stabbed 16 times, died on her bedroomfloor. But Krystal, soaked in blood, managed to walk a quarter-mileto a neighbor’s house for help.

From her hospital bed, Krystal helped authorities draw a sketchthat led to Sells’ arrest two days after the slaying.

Since then, authorities say, Sells has confessed to murders inseven states that date back to the 1980s. Sells had been driftingaround the country working odd jobs before coming to Del Rio in1998.