NC man now charged with killing 4 of his kids cited PTSD in court filing last year
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4 children killed in Johnston County
A man in Zebulon, NC, is charged with four counts of murder after he confessed to killing four of his children, the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office said Oct. 28, 2025. Here is ongoing coverage.
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The Johnston County father accused of killing four of his children cited his declining mental health and the stress of raising five children alone after his wife’s death in a 2024 request for relief from court fines, according to court records obtained by The News & Observer.
“It’s hard for me to get out and do anything pertaining to [my]self with this tragedy unfortunately taking up all my time,” Wellington Dickens III wrote in the request for relief from traffic fines. “I’m 100% PTSD and I’m afraid my mental state is not improving.”
Dickens, 39, faces four charges of murder in the deaths of 6-year-old Leah Dickens, 9-year-old Zoe Dickens, 10-year-old Wellington Dickens IV and 18-year-old Sean Brasfield, his stepson. Their bodies were found in the trunk of a car at the family’s home in Zebulon.
Dickens confessed to the killings in an Oct. 27 call to 911, saying first it was his fault, and later in the call that God influenced him to commit the crimes.
The News & Observer asked the Wake County District Attorneys Office on Thursday whether what Dickens included in his request should have been reported to social services.
“This particular filing, in my opinion, would not have triggered a duty to report,” District Attorney Lorrin Freeman told The N&O.
Wife died after miscarriage
In his August 2024 request to a Wake County District Court judge, Dickens said it was difficult raising and homeschooling five children alone after his wife, Stephanie Jones Dickens, died earlier that year from complications of a miscarriage. Authorities did not suspect foul play in her death, according to the autopsy records.
He asked the court to forgive the fines for two 2016 charges — speeding and driving with a revoked license – so he could get his license reinstated. The court granted his request.
He wrote that he was living off roughly $4,600 a month in veterans benefits and Social Security Disability Insurance and only had around $6,000 on hand when he filed his request for relief.
Much of his monthly income went to paying rent and child support, according to the court documents.
Dickens, who has been transferred to Central Prison in Raleigh, has been charged many times before his current murder charges, The N&O previously reported. The majority of those offenses are traffic related.
That includes being charged five times with speeding and driving with a revoked license and being arrested or cited more than a dozen times from 2014 to 2017, according to public records.
News & Observer criminal justice reporter Virginia Bridges contributed to this story.
This story was originally published November 6, 2025 at 1:09 PM with the headline "NC man now charged with killing 4 of his kids cited PTSD in court filing last year."
