A 34-year-old man accused of setting fire to the body of a 15-year-old girl in San Diego’s Morena neighborhood last year pleaded guilty Wednesday to arson and mutilating human remains.
Prosecutors alleged that Bud Shelton, 34, lit the fire after the teenager died of an overdose. Shelton also pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a minor.
Shelton faces 25 years and four months in prison — and the possibility he will have to register as a sex offender — when he is sentenced in San Diego Superior Court in January, Deputy District Attorney Carden Chan said.
Shelton was not charged with homicide counts related to the girl’s death. His criminal record includes at least two serious felonies and a strike, and that allowed prosecutors to secure the lengthy sentence.
Just after 2:50 a.m., Aug. 18, 2022, someone called 911 to report a brush fire on a slope along the north side of Friars Road west of Napa Street and the possibility there was a body in the flames, San Diego police homicide Lt. Steve Shebloski said last year.
As San Diego Fire-Rescue crews doused the fire, police officers found the teenager’s body.
It took about five months before the teenager was identified. She had gone missing two weeks before she was discovered.
Following his arraignment, 10News reported that the prosecutor alleged the defendant and victim had sex and that the girl later overdosed and died.
City News Service contributed to this story.
