Felon found guilty of killing Cabazon man over fake rape

A 59-year-old probationer who killed a Cabazon man in a rage over accusations -- ultimately verified as lies -- that the victim had sexually assaulted the defendant's girlfriend was convicted today of first-degree murder.   

After deliberating only two days -- with an intervening court holiday on Wednesday -- a Riverside jury on Thursday found Richard Eugene Seevers of Cabazon guilty of the 2021 slaying of 31-year-old Dillon Entler.   

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jason Armand scheduled a sentencing hearing for Aug. 9 at the Riverside Hall of Justice.   

Seevers is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail.   

His co-defendant, 49-year-old Frank Edward Mansfield, also of Cabazon, is charged with murder, as well, but his case was severed from Seevers' after a judge ordered psychiatric evaluations for him.

Mansfield is being held without bail at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning and is due back in court for a status hearing on July 26.   

Entler vanished during the last week of August 2021 and was reported missing by his mother after she was unable to reach him, according to a trial brief filed by the District Attorney's Office.

That summer, the victim had carried on a brief dalliance with a Cabazon woman, Ashley Goodro, who was Seevers' steady girlfriend, the brief stated.

When the defendant uncovered the sexual activity, he confronted Goodro, who feared his violent temper and immediately fabricated a story that she had not had consensual sex, but rather that Entler had forced himself on her several times, according to court papers.

Seevers became "enraged" and contacted Mansfield, telling him that Entler was a rapist and they needed to deal with him. Mansfield agreed to help, taking Seevers to the house where the victim was staying with a friend in the 49800 block of Mountain View Avenue, prosecutors alleged.

Mansfield drew Entler out of the house on the pretext of speaking with him, without the victim realizing that Seevers was waiting in front of the property with a gun, according to the brief.

"Seevers confronted Dillon regarding the `rape' of Ashley. Dillon began to argue with Seevers, who shot him in the head, chest and leg,'' the brief said.

Entler died at the location, after which the defendants loaded his remains into Mansfield's SUV and drove to an abandoned ranch in Poppet Flats, where they buried the body, according to the prosecution.

However, within three months, a construction project began in the immediate vicinity, and the pair became concerned the body would be found, so they returned and unearthed it, taking it somewhere in the vicinity of a place known as "Dead Man's Corner," near the intersection of Esperanza and Orange streets in Cabazon, where they buried the remains again, the brief said.   

The body has yet to be recovered.   

During a drunken conversation in December 2021 with a then-friend, Jennifer West, Seevers confessed to the killing, detailing most of what transpired, according to prosecutors. West kept it to herself until she was contacted by sheriff's homicide detectives in 2023.

Her statements, as well as those of Goodro and others, led to arrest warrants and charges against Seevers and Mansfield last August.   

Court records show Seevers has a prior felony conviction for child abuse. Mansfield has no documented priors in Riverside County.