01/22/2021
State v. Jose Melendez First Degree Murder
Death by Drug Delivery
On March 8, 2001, I was consumed with my morning ritual of digesting the metro section of the Sun -Sentinel, when I was taken by the headline of a first degree murder by virtue of an alleged drug delivery to an underage female victim.
Based upon the headline, Jose Melendez was alleged to have delivered $10.00 worth of he**in to 13-year old Sherry Maresco, who was alleged to have fatally overdosed as a result. Consequently, Melendez was arrested and charged with her first degree capital murder.
Florida Statutes 782.04(3) essentially provides when a person of 18 years of age or older unlawfully distributes a qualifying controlled substance , and said delivery is proven to be the proximate cause of death of the victim, than it can be charged as a capital offense commonly (or not so commonly) known as Death by Drug Distribution.
Something about this story didn't sit right, independant of the horror of the untimely death of a 13 -year old, so I decided to pay Mr. Melendez, who was unrepresented, a visit in the Broward County jail where he was held without bond. I advised Melendez that I was disturbed by the reported facts and offered to consider representing him pro bono, if he was sympathetic, honest in answering my questions and didn't bu****it me for starters. I paid Melendez three visits to the jail before I decided to file my pro bono appearance as attorney of record on his behalf.
Melendez was a soft spoken immigrant from El Salvador with no prior criminal record who peddled small amounts of narcotics while on his bicycle from the Silver Oaks mobile home trailer park in Davie The guy couldn't rub two nickers together and by all appearances was just a petty nickel and dime drug dealer.
Melendez also advised me that the delivery was made to Christina, a friend of the victim, and not Maresco although they might have been togrther at the time of the delivery. This point begs the question, who then was responsible for the delivery to Maresco? And why wasn't Christina charged with delivery, a second degree felonyor with Maresco's first degree murder?
By all appearances, it was becoming more apparent that my initial instincts were spot on and that Melendez was apparently the fall guy for the Miramar police department along with the Broward County State Attorney's office.
The question about the delivery was a legitimate legal question that law enforcement nor the state could answer during the two years I litigated this pro bono case before the Honorable Ilona Holmes, a former federal prosecutor, who was a pleasure to appear in before during my decades as a criminal defense lawyer.
We learned during the Discovery phase of the defense that the victim had been using at least co***ne with friends and had vomited, with no one coming to her aid the night prior to her death and that based upon the autopsy and conclusion of the medical examiner, that the cause of death was from co***ne toxicity, which caused extensive bleeding in her lungs, and that he**in and xanax toxicity were "contributing factors."
There was evidence abduced during the defense of Melendez that Mareso's boyfriend had been a long term source of co***ne for Sherry however he was never charged nor questioned by Miramar detectives.
Based upon the report of the medical examiner, the actual delivery being made to Christina, Maresco's girlfriend and a series of other arguments on Melendez's behalf, the state attorney's office ultimately dropped the charges against Melendez.
On the final day of the hearing when the state announced a "nolle prosque" dropping any and all charges against him approximately two years after his arrest, Melendez was overjoyed, left the courthouse with his mother, and hasn't been seen or heard from since.
Should Melendez have been charged? with what? Who else should have been charged? Why wasn't Christina charged? Should her boyfriend have been charged? Was the result a fair and just outcome? What else?
