Orange County prosecutors Friday won a significant legal victory in the case against a 64-year-old man charged in a 1981 murder in Newport Beach.
A judge ruled prosecutors could use testimony of an earlier hearing from one of the defendant’s friends, who has since died.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Gregg Prickett ruled that he would let jurors hear incriminating testimony from a now-deceased friend of James Andrew Melton, 64, who is charged with beating and strangling 77-year-old Anthony DeSousa in his Newport Beach home.
Jurors in a May 2014 trial of Melton did not hear evidence from the deceased Johnny Boyd, a “partner in crime” with Melton when they concocted a scheme to find victims in gay magazine classified ads, Senior Deputy District Attorney Steve McGreevy said. The jury in that trial deadlocked 10-2 in favor of convicting Melton of murder.
Boyd, who was given immunity, testified that the two met in prison and had come up with the plan to seek out older, affluent men in gay men’s magazines and prey on them, McGreevy said. Boyd was supposed to go along with Melton the night DeSousa was killed but he got picked up on an unrelated arrest warrant and was behind bars, McGreevy said.
Afterward, Boyd testified, Melton told his friend what happened with DeSousa, McGreevy said.
Melton was convicted in 1982 of the robbery-murder, but a federal judge in 2007 overturned that verdict, leading to a retrial. U.S. District Judge Robert M. Takasugi ruled that the defendant could not comprehend his original trial because of the psychiatric medications that were given to him.
Melton had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder from violence and sexual abuse as a child and had a history of alcohol and drug abuse beginning when he was a child.
Melton was awaiting execution at San Quentin when the federal judge intervened. After the new trial was ordered, prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty against Melton.
Before Takasugi’s ruling, Melton’s conviction was upheld on appeal multiple times.
Associate Public Defender Denise Gragg argued in the trial two years ago that authorities arrested the wrong person. She said Melton was at home when the victim was killed.
DeSousa lived alone in his two-bedroom condo on Bolero Way when he was killed. Seven years after his wife’s death, DeSousa had a “lifestyle change” and “became openly homosexual,” McGreevy said in the 2014 trial.
DeSousa advertised in a national gay magazine for companionship, McGreevy said.
The victim was found in his home with a pillow over his face and his hands bound. His attacker beat him so severely the victim lost a tooth, McGreevy said.
Melton was wearing the victim’s watch when he was arrested, McGreevy said.
— City News Service