ERinger
07-17-2006, 10:08 PM
Hinton confesses to Melendi murder
Emory student raped, strangled, burned in 1994
By DAVID SIMPSON
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/18/06
REIDSVILLE — Colvin C. "Butch" Hinton III confessed Monday to murdering Shannon Melendi, telling authorities he raped and strangled the 19-year-old student before burning her body.
"I hate what I done," Hinton said in a meeting with authorities Monday at Georgia State Prison, where he is serving a life sentence for Melendi's murder.
It marked the first time that Hinton confessed to the murder, and his account answered questions that had been swirling around the case for more than a decade.
Because Melendi's body has never been found, no one was certain how she was killed, how Hinton might have disposed of her body or the circumstances surrounding her disappearance.
Melendi, an Emory University student, was last seen alive at a DeKalb County softball complex on March 26, 1994, where she worked. Her disappearance prompted a high-profile search by her family in Florida and by friends in Atlanta.
Melendi had worked part time at the Carter Center, and former President Jimmy Carter helped make sure the FBI was involved in the case. As the search intensified, Shannon's photo appeared on billboards and on television shows such as "America's Most Wanted."
All the while, Hinton said Monday, Melendi's ashes had been discarded.
And to throw off the police, Hinton admitted Monday to sneaking away from his job at a Delta Air Lines maintenance facility and calling Emory to pose as a person who had been holding Melendi.
That call was traced to a pay phone in McDonough, where authorities found a ring belonging to Melendi enclosed in a bag and wrapped in tape.
During Monday's interview with law enforcement authorities and prison officials — attended by an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter — Hinton said he approached Melendi that day at the softball complex, where he was an umpire, and gave Melendi a ride to Burger King to have lunch.
Then, he tricked her into driving his car by pretending he had a cramp in his leg.
Once she was behind the wheel, Hinton pulled a knife and forced Melendi to drive to his Clayton County home, he said. He then raped her twice and held her there for about 12 hours.
He said he left her tied up at the house twice — once while he went back to the softball complex to move her car and a second time to go to the movies with relatives in the hopes of establishing an alibi, he said.
Then, he strangled her with a necktie and burned her body in his yard, he said.
"I know I'll never, ever be forgiven by most people. And I accept that," Hinton said Monday. "But I am so sorry. I've hurt so many people with the lies I've told."
During his confession, Hinton sat at the head of a conference table with his hands folded. He was matter of fact in describing his crime, occasionally gesturing with his hands to describe where he held Melendi or how he bound her.
Hinton long was a prime suspect in Melendi's disappearance because of past sex offenses, but he wasn't indicted for her murder until 10 years later.
Hinton went to federal prison in 1996 for arson — setting fire to his house for insurance money — and inmates who served time with him helped build the case against him. They claimed he talked about disposing of a body. One said Hinton awoke screaming one night and said, "I didn't kill her. The demon inside of me killed her."
Last September, he was convicted of the murder in a DeKalb County court — even though investigators never found Melendi's body and prosecutors could not say when or where she was killed.
Hinton became the first person convicted of murder in Georgia in a "no body, no crime scene" case.
Monday's confession, said DeKalb County District Attorney Gwen Keyes Fleming, was the "final chapter" in the Melendi case.
"We had no body. No crime scene. But we had a conviction," Keyes Fleming said at an afternoon news conference. "Now, we have a confession."
Luis Melendi, Shannon's father, said Hinton's account of her kidnapping and murder was "just like I suspected."
The confession, he said, proved that Shannon did nothing wrong, contrary to defense suggestions during Hinton's appeal that she might have been killed by an unknown drug dealer or boyfriend.
Melendi, who lives in Key Largo, Fla., had been asked if he wanted to attend Hinton's confession Monday, but declined, he said.
Hinton has wanted to confess since seeing Melendi's family at his trial, he said Monday. But he held out some hope of freedom until the Georgia Supreme Court upheld his conviction last month. On Monday, the court denied Hinton's motion for reconsideration of his appeal.
John Petrey, the lead prosecutor in Hinton's trial, called the confession self-serving.
Hinton, he said, "tries to convince people now that he cares about the Melendi family. If he cared about the Melendi family, he wouldn't be saying this in 2006."
DeKalb Police Sgt. Ray Ice, one of the investigators who searched Hinton's property shortly after Melendi's disappearance, said he was "very skeptical" of Hinton's claim that he was able to completely burn the body so quickly without the odor being detected by anyone, including Hinton's wife, who returned home the same day that Hinton said he burned the body.
Mitzi Prochnow, who owns a Virginia Highland women's boutique that Melendi frequented, said she hopes Hinton's confession helps her family "put this behind them."
In the days following Melendi's disappearance, Prochnow agreed to put Melendi's missing person's poster in the window of her shop, Mitzi & Romano on North Highland Avenue.
It remained there until Hinton's conviction last year, when Prochnow gave it to Melendi's sister, Monique.
Others were surprised by Monday's confession.
"I'm really shocked," said Anne Vasquez, a childhood friend of Melendi's who burst into tears when a reporter told her about Hinton's confession.
"For 12 years, I have wondered what's happened. I've had dreams about Shannon," said Vasquez, who is 31 and now a business editor at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper.
"There was some closure that came with the trial, but we still didn't really know what happened. I haven't had these emotions for years, but this is bringing it all back."
Staff writers Chandler Brown and Ernie Suggs contributed to this article.
Emory student raped, strangled, burned in 1994
By DAVID SIMPSON
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/18/06
REIDSVILLE — Colvin C. "Butch" Hinton III confessed Monday to murdering Shannon Melendi, telling authorities he raped and strangled the 19-year-old student before burning her body.
"I hate what I done," Hinton said in a meeting with authorities Monday at Georgia State Prison, where he is serving a life sentence for Melendi's murder.
It marked the first time that Hinton confessed to the murder, and his account answered questions that had been swirling around the case for more than a decade.
Because Melendi's body has never been found, no one was certain how she was killed, how Hinton might have disposed of her body or the circumstances surrounding her disappearance.
Melendi, an Emory University student, was last seen alive at a DeKalb County softball complex on March 26, 1994, where she worked. Her disappearance prompted a high-profile search by her family in Florida and by friends in Atlanta.
Melendi had worked part time at the Carter Center, and former President Jimmy Carter helped make sure the FBI was involved in the case. As the search intensified, Shannon's photo appeared on billboards and on television shows such as "America's Most Wanted."
All the while, Hinton said Monday, Melendi's ashes had been discarded.
And to throw off the police, Hinton admitted Monday to sneaking away from his job at a Delta Air Lines maintenance facility and calling Emory to pose as a person who had been holding Melendi.
That call was traced to a pay phone in McDonough, where authorities found a ring belonging to Melendi enclosed in a bag and wrapped in tape.
During Monday's interview with law enforcement authorities and prison officials — attended by an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter — Hinton said he approached Melendi that day at the softball complex, where he was an umpire, and gave Melendi a ride to Burger King to have lunch.
Then, he tricked her into driving his car by pretending he had a cramp in his leg.
Once she was behind the wheel, Hinton pulled a knife and forced Melendi to drive to his Clayton County home, he said. He then raped her twice and held her there for about 12 hours.
He said he left her tied up at the house twice — once while he went back to the softball complex to move her car and a second time to go to the movies with relatives in the hopes of establishing an alibi, he said.
Then, he strangled her with a necktie and burned her body in his yard, he said.
"I know I'll never, ever be forgiven by most people. And I accept that," Hinton said Monday. "But I am so sorry. I've hurt so many people with the lies I've told."
During his confession, Hinton sat at the head of a conference table with his hands folded. He was matter of fact in describing his crime, occasionally gesturing with his hands to describe where he held Melendi or how he bound her.
Hinton long was a prime suspect in Melendi's disappearance because of past sex offenses, but he wasn't indicted for her murder until 10 years later.
Hinton went to federal prison in 1996 for arson — setting fire to his house for insurance money — and inmates who served time with him helped build the case against him. They claimed he talked about disposing of a body. One said Hinton awoke screaming one night and said, "I didn't kill her. The demon inside of me killed her."
Last September, he was convicted of the murder in a DeKalb County court — even though investigators never found Melendi's body and prosecutors could not say when or where she was killed.
Hinton became the first person convicted of murder in Georgia in a "no body, no crime scene" case.
Monday's confession, said DeKalb County District Attorney Gwen Keyes Fleming, was the "final chapter" in the Melendi case.
"We had no body. No crime scene. But we had a conviction," Keyes Fleming said at an afternoon news conference. "Now, we have a confession."
Luis Melendi, Shannon's father, said Hinton's account of her kidnapping and murder was "just like I suspected."
The confession, he said, proved that Shannon did nothing wrong, contrary to defense suggestions during Hinton's appeal that she might have been killed by an unknown drug dealer or boyfriend.
Melendi, who lives in Key Largo, Fla., had been asked if he wanted to attend Hinton's confession Monday, but declined, he said.
Hinton has wanted to confess since seeing Melendi's family at his trial, he said Monday. But he held out some hope of freedom until the Georgia Supreme Court upheld his conviction last month. On Monday, the court denied Hinton's motion for reconsideration of his appeal.
John Petrey, the lead prosecutor in Hinton's trial, called the confession self-serving.
Hinton, he said, "tries to convince people now that he cares about the Melendi family. If he cared about the Melendi family, he wouldn't be saying this in 2006."
DeKalb Police Sgt. Ray Ice, one of the investigators who searched Hinton's property shortly after Melendi's disappearance, said he was "very skeptical" of Hinton's claim that he was able to completely burn the body so quickly without the odor being detected by anyone, including Hinton's wife, who returned home the same day that Hinton said he burned the body.
Mitzi Prochnow, who owns a Virginia Highland women's boutique that Melendi frequented, said she hopes Hinton's confession helps her family "put this behind them."
In the days following Melendi's disappearance, Prochnow agreed to put Melendi's missing person's poster in the window of her shop, Mitzi & Romano on North Highland Avenue.
It remained there until Hinton's conviction last year, when Prochnow gave it to Melendi's sister, Monique.
Others were surprised by Monday's confession.
"I'm really shocked," said Anne Vasquez, a childhood friend of Melendi's who burst into tears when a reporter told her about Hinton's confession.
"For 12 years, I have wondered what's happened. I've had dreams about Shannon," said Vasquez, who is 31 and now a business editor at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper.
"There was some closure that came with the trial, but we still didn't really know what happened. I haven't had these emotions for years, but this is bringing it all back."
Staff writers Chandler Brown and Ernie Suggs contributed to this article.