The Johnston County district attorney told a judge Thursday he will seek the death penalty for a Zebulon man accused of killing four of his children.

Wellington Dickens III, 29, was arrested at his Springtooth Drive home Oct. 27 after he called 911 and told dispatchers he’d killed four of his children.

Officers found the bodies of 6-year-old Leah, 9-year-old Zoe, 10-year-old Wellington IV and 18-year-old Sean Brasfield — Dickens’ stepson — in the trunk of his car in the garage, The News & Observer previously reported.

Investigators have said they believe the children died at different times between May and September of this year, though District Attorney Jason Waller expanded that time frame to October in court Thursday. Brasfield had cerebral palsy and was blind in one eye, his stepfather told The N&O.

Dickens told detectives he accidentally beat Leah to death in May, then accidentally smothered Zoe by placing tape over her mouth as punishment for asking about her sister, according to search warrants. He claimed Wellington IV and Sean then starved to death after refusing to eat, warrants state.

A 3-year-old sibling was found unharmed in the home, police said. Dickens was charged in October with four counts of murder in the children’s deaths.

Did a fifth child die?

It’s not yet clear if Dickens might face additional charges after he reportedly confessed to burying a fifth child who died years before the other four.

Dickens allegedly told detectives he’d buried a 1-month-old named Riley in the woods by his home after the infant died following a “decline in health,” according to search warrants released last month.

Searches of the Dickens property and a neighboring property have yet to turn up any remains, though weather conditions may have complicated the searches, the warrants state.

Dickens and his late wife, Stephanie, didn’t believe in doctors or traditional medicine, according to court documents. Stephanie Dickens died at the home in March 2024 after declining to seek medical care for hemorrhaging from a miscarriage; an autopsy confirmed she’d died of natural causes, The N&O reported.

Wellington Dickens didn’t seek medical care for his wife and reportedly sat with her body for hours before calling 911, but didn’t face charges after her death. It’s not clear if child protective services was involved afterward.

The couple was previously investigated in Wake County in 2016 after refusing medical care for Zoe’s jaundice at birth.

Waller declined to comment to The N&O this week on whether Dickens may face charges in Riley’s death.

The children’s maternal grandmother was in court Thursday. Dickens, clad in an orange and white jail jumpsuit, nodded to her as he walked into the courtroom. He did not speak to the court during Thursday’s brief hearing.

Waller said Thursday that detectives still aren’t sure if Leah Dickens was 5 or 6 years old at the time of her death and are working to determine when exactly she was killed. The case involves “unique pieces of evidence,” according to Waller, including the body bags the children were found in, which he said the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office has taken “extraordinary measures to preserve.”

The next hearing in Dickens’ case is set for March 27, 2026. It will be an administrative hearing that likely won’t require Dickens’ presence.

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