Deceased/Not Found GA - Shannon Melendi, 19, Atlanta, 26 March 1994

[concernedperson]

Hinton sentenced to life, 3 hours after verdict read.

http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=69406

 

[mysteriew]

A man serving time for arson was convicted Monday of murdering a 19-year-old Emory University student 11 years ago even though her body has never been found.

Colvin "Butch" Hinton, who once was imprisoned for kidnapping a 14-year-old girl, was convicted by a DeKalb County Superior Court jury of murder and felony murder.

The jury deliberated for three days before reaching its verdict largely on circumstantial evidence.
http://www.news4jax.com/news4georgia/4992089/detail.html

 

[Angel's lil sis]

On behalf of my family and I, THANK YOU!!! Your kind words of love and encouragement really helped us through this. Nothing will bring back Shannon, but justice has been served. We're still in shock, but it's sinking in slowly but surely.

With love,

Monique, Yvonne, and Luis Melendi

 

[fourboys]

Hinton guilty, gets life sentence

Jury convicts him of murder in Melendi disappearance

By DAVID SIMPSON
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/19/05

Colvin "Butch" Hinton was today sentenced to mandatory life in prison for the murder of Emory University student Shannon Melendi.

DeKalb Superior Court Judge Anne Workman sentenced Hinton on two counts of murder, one alleging he deliberately killed Hinton and the other that he killed her during the commission of another felony, kidnapping.

The 19-year-old Melendi disappeared from a DeKalb softball park March 26, 1994. Her body was never found.

During a brief sentencing hearing, Shannon Melendi's mother and sister spoke directly to Hinton.

"This is the first and last time I will ever speak to you," said Yvonne Melendi, Shannon's mother. "You murdered Shannon, but you did not kill her spirit. She will live in our memories forever."

Monique Melendi, Shannon's sister, told Hinton, "You robbed a child of her hero. ... When you killed my sister, you also killed a part of me."

Hinton looked straight ahead while the two women spoke. Moments later when Workman asked him if he wanted to speak, he said quietly, "No."

His voice dropped to a whisper as he answered two more questions from the judge to say that he understood the sentence.

Shannon Melendi disappeared from the Softball Country Club on North Decatur Road. Searches and a nationally publicized appeal for information failed to turn up any sign of her, but authorities quickly focused their attention on Hinton, who was an umpire on the field where Melendi was the scorekeeper.

Prosecutors said Hinton, 44, abducted her from a DeKalb softball park and then killed her.

Hinton, now 44, had served prison time for kidnapping and enticing a minor in 1982. Earlier, he had been sent by a Juvenile Court to counseling after attacking a woman in 1977, when he was 17. Both victims testified before the DeKalb jury last week.

Hinton later went back to prison on a 1996 arson conviction, and some of his fellow inmates testified he made statements to them about how to dispose of a body and his worries about being linked to the Melendi case.

Other witnesses testified Hinton came back to the softball park for no apparent reason after Melendi vanished, which the prosecution says was an attempt to establish an alibi.

But because authorities never found a body or any blood or other remains, the only physical evidence is a small, taped-up bundle found near a pay phone in McDonough where someone placed a call to Emory on April 6, 1994. The caller claimed he had Melendi and would make demands later.

Behind the outdoor phone, an FBI agent found a taped-up bag containing a ring that had belonged to Melendi.

That type of cloth bag was commonly used to hold small parts at Hinton's then-workplace, a Delta Air Lines' maintenance facility.

The manufacturer said Delta was the only purchaser of the bag in Georgia but acknowledged the bag was used at many other places across the country.

Prosecutors said metal particles found stuck to the adhesive tape around the bag by a private laboratory last year provide a strong match to the Delta facility.

The jury spent an hour and 15 minutes last week listening to court reporters read transcripts of the testimony by Adonis Cornwell and Ronson Westmoreland. Cornwell, who remains in federal prison for bank robbery, had testified Hinton once awoke crying and sweating and told Cornwell, "I didn't kill her. The demon inside of me killed her."

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/dekalb/0905/19melendi.html

 

[Bobbisangel]

I'm so glad that they found this creep guilty. Now did he get life or life without the possibilty of parole? If it is just life he could serve 10 years!!!

 

[Usher737]

Another monster off of the street, so he can never hurt another young girl again! Justice has been served for Shannon. Prayers to her family.

 

[christine2448]

I'm so glad that they found this creep guilty. Now did he get life or life without the possibilty of parole? If it is just life he could serve 10 years!!!

Jurors reached their decision after nearly 12 hours of deliberations. Monday afternoon, Judge Anne Workman sentenced Hinton, 44, to life in prison. He will be eligible for parole in 14 years, but both the Melendi family and the DeKalb County District Attorney's office indicated that they will adamantly lobby the parole board to keep Hinton behind bars.

The death penalty was never considered for Hinton because under Georgia law the state has to prove the circumstances of the victim's death in order to prosecute a capital case.

http://www.courttv.com/trials/hinton/091905_verdict_ctv.html

 

[angelmom]

I almost wept with relief last night when we saw this on the news. I cannot believe the day has finally come when Butch Hinton has to pay for this nightmare, but it is here. Thank God!!!

My prayers, as always, are with the Melendis. It broke my heart to see them on TV and in today's paper, but there was some satisfaction seeing Hinton's guilt spread across the front page, above the fold.

I hope the other murderers get the message. We will not forget!!! Justice will be served.

I hope there is some small measure of peace for Shannon's family today. I only wish he would tell what really happened. Not knowing is too much.

 

[angelmom]

On behalf of my family and I, THANK YOU!!! Your kind words of love and encouragement really helped us through this. Nothing will bring back Shannon, but justice has been served. We're still in shock, but it's sinking in slowly but surely.

With love,

Monique, Yvonne, and Luis Melendi

Hugs to all of you. I'm so glad the trial is finally over and that the jury could see beyond all of BH's plans to erase Shannon. I guess he has never loved or been loved enough to know that she can not be completely taken as long as there are so many who remember. I know I will never forget.

I hope there is some peace in your hearts today.

 

[Angel's lil sis]

Once again, thank you. Unfortunately the fight is not over. We already have to begin writing letters to the Parole Board so when his time comes to appeal, his file will be filled with letters. If anyone would like to help us keep this monster in jail where he belongs, I will forward information as soon as I get it.

How ironic that a "life" sentence is appealable after 14 years.

 

[Angel's lil sis]

We WILL lobby the Parole Board. Anyone who wishes to help us keep this monster behind bars where he belongs is more than welcome to write letters as well. I will provide information as it becomes available.

 

[mysteriew]

After a jury on Monday convicted Colvin "Butch" Hinton of murdering Melendi, Mitzi Prochnow may take down the poster from the front of her Virginia-Highland clothing boutique.

Maybe.

She wants to ask Shannon's parents first. Because even now, neither she nor they nor even the prosecutors who made the case against Hinton know very much about what happened after Shannon vanished.

Monday's verdict and Hinton's life sentence may be the last official words in the nationally publicized tragedy of Shannon Melendi, but it was not a day for writing a final chapter.

For Shannon's family, there was talk of putting purpose into Shannon's death by crusading for tougher sentencing of sex offenders — Hinton had done time for a prior sexual assault — and there was gratitude that Hinton did not go free.

But there also was Monique Melendi, now 25, talking about a little girl who lost her big sister and a young woman who knows that loss will confront her at every stage of her life.

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/dekalb/0905/20melenditrial.html

 

[mysteriew]

We WILL lobby the Parole Board. Anyone who wishes to help us keep this monster behind bars where he belongs is more than welcome to write letters as well. I will provide information as it becomes available.

My condolences to the family. I know this is not a time of celebration for your family, but I am glad this part is finally over.
Please do keep us informed, anytime. When you have a memorial or event. When you just miss her, or when you make progress. And yes, definately let us know if/when you need letters for the parole board.

 

[angelmom]

My condolences to the family. I know this is not a time of celebration for your family, but I am glad this part is finally over.
Please do keep us informed, anytime. When you have a memorial or event. When you just miss her, or when you make progress. And yes, definately let us know if/when you need letters for the parole board.

I'm with mysteriew on this. I will be happy to write letters to the parole board as well. I don't know if it would help that I live in metro Atlanta (and pay taxes here and vote here), but I'll do whatever I can to make sure he never sees freedom.

 

[Bobbisangel]

Once again, thank you. Unfortunately the fight is not over. We already have to begin writing letters to the Parole Board so when his time comes to appeal, his file will be filled with letters. If anyone would like to help us keep this monster in jail where he belongs, I will forward information as soon as I get it.

How ironic that a "life" sentence is appealable after 14 years.

I think that any sentence can be appealed but it usually doesn't go anywhere.
Hopefully the Prosecutor was careful and made sure that all of his/her eyes were dotted and tees were crossed. These creeps can appeal all that they want but unless their attorney can find a technicality of some sort the appeals go nowhere. Wait a minute...didn't he get life w/out parole? That should mean that he never gets out. That's odd. Are you in Canada by any chance? I can't remember.

My advice for what it is worth...I believe that God had His hand on this trial and that that creep was found guilty because that was the way it was supposed to turn out. Write your letters but try to put the whole thing in God's hands. It isn't easy but it gives a person some peace to just say "here Lord, you take care of this appeal stuff. It's in your hands now."

I'm really not crazy..lol. When my daughter's killer was on the run for those 8 years that is what I had to do. I had to give it to God otherwise it would have driven me crazy. I figured the killer would be caught in God's time...not when I wanted it to happen. Our lead detective and I talked about it and we wondered if God wasn't waiting until my grandaughter was older so that she could attend the trial and give a victim impact statement. The killer was caught when she was 13 yrs...sentenced when she was 14 yrs and giving her victim impact statement...directed to her father...impowered her and helped with her healing.

You and your family take care and try not to worry. If you want some letters written I would be glad to write one to the board. Let me know what I need to [email protected]. I'd be happy to help in any way that I can. Barbara

 

[maddie]

Hi, I'm new here. I was curious about reactions to the verdict in the Hinton trial, and I stumbled upon this site. I wasn't going to join, but angelmom asked an important question that really should be answered.

Angelmom, the reference to Hinton's target changing referred to a phone call he made the day before Shannon disappeared. Since the media appears not to have covered it, I won't use the woman's name in case she had requested anonymity. The woman was the ex-wife of a good friend of Hinton's. He called her on Friday and insisted that she meet him at 2 p.m. on Saturday. He also insisted that she not tell anyone where she was going or who she was meeting. He first told her he had to see her because he was planning a surprise get-together for his wife. His insistence that she meet him and that she not tell anyone and the oddity of his calling her made her nervous, and she wouldn't agree to meet him. He then said his wife would be coming, too (she was actually out of town). At that point, he told her the reason he had to see her was because 'I have something I have to tell you, but I can't tell you now.' When the woman asked to speak to his wife, he said she was in the shower, and he pretended to be talking to her. Because his wife was supposed to be there, the woman did agree to meet him. She says she showed up and waited about two hours for him, but he didn't show. His phone records show that he called her after 4 p.m. to apologize. She said he told her he got hung up at the softball club. The defense argued that he wanted to meet with her because he wanted to "patch things up" between them since they hadn't been good friends.

It's a pity that the media did not cover this piece of evidence, as I found it to be compelling. At this point I should probably admit that I was on the jury. I should also make the disclaimer that I no longer have my jury notes in front of me, so the above paragraph is from memory. I, personally, did not choose to speak to the media because this case was too complex for the media sound bite that would most certainly come from an interview with jurors. Angelmom's question dragged me out of the closet! Taken with the testimony from co-workers that Hinton had said he'd had a "hot date" planned and taken with the testimony of the girl he kidnapped and assaulted (which was entered as limited evidence), the phone call appeared consistent with Hinton's past behavior with a victim and suggested a motive in this case.

While I'm here, I might as well address a couple of other things I've seen discussed on various sites (this is the only one I've logged into, btw). We did not know about the accusation of arson or the conviction for insurance fraud. They obviously chose a jury made up of people who were largely clueless about the Melendi case. We were told only that he had served prison time for a nonviolent, unrelated crime. The evidence photographs from the search of his yard showed part of his house had burned, but we didn't know if it was before or after Shannon disappeared.

The only role the house fire played in the deliberations was that we asked to have the testimony of Adonis Cornwall read back to us. Adonis, not at first glance the sort of upstanding person in whose word one would place a lot of weight, had testified that Butch told him he was worried because 'My house burned all up, and they found a girl's sweater in the yard.' The law enforcement officer in charge of the yard search testified that information about the finding of the sweaters had absolutely not been released to the media. Therefore, Adonis knew something that, according to testimony, he shouldn't have known had he not actually had a conversation about the case with Hinton. Because a later reference a witness made to a fire had been struck from the record (and neither discussed nor considered), we decided that before we considered Cornwall's testimony, we needed to make sure that the comment wasn't objected to and struck from the record, and we somehow missed noting it.

I will also say that this was a very conscientious jury. We did not, as the defense attorney suggests, make our decision based on emotion. We presumed Hinton innocent. We went through all the testimony and other evidence with a fine tooth comb. We made up our own timeline, based on testimony, game schedules, and phone records. We went over the testimony of every witness. We wrote it all on big sheets of paper and hung it on the walls. We wrote out every inconsistency in testimony/evidence. We considered the reliability and weight of each piece of evidence and the weight of it as a whole. We, of course, considered the lack of physical evidence. We went over the charges to the jury and the definitions therein, paragraph by paragraph and line by line. We constantly assured one another to only vote as we each genuinely felt we should, regardless of how long we would sit on the jury. We discussed each and every concern of every juror. We initially voted in secret, on paper, so no one would know how the others voted until they were tallied. We checked after the final vote, before submitting the verdict, to make sure no one had second thoughts. You hear stories about nightmare juries, and I have to say that this is a jury of which I was proud to be a part. We didn't find Hinton guilty based primarily upon his past behavior. We all know that there are many predators out there and that, despite having proximity to Shannon, being a predator in another case didn't necessarily mean Hinton had to be the predator in this one. With all due respect to the Melendi family, if we had convicted an innocent man of this crime, based solely on his past transgressions, it would mean that Shannon's murderer was still out there, possibly looking for other victims, and no one would be looking for him. We convicted Hinton because we very carefully considered the evidence, and we reached the conclusion that he was guilty of this crime. (Interestingly, one of the four alternate jurors told me after the trial that they, too, had unanimously concluded that Hinton was guilty.)

I can only speak for myself and how I interpreted things. I would appreciate it if you would keep what I've said within this forum. I don't wish to be in a position in which my words are taken as the individual opinions of other jurors.

 

[concernedperson]

Welcome to Websleuths, Maddie. Great first post! Thanks for the additional information. Please stay around....lots on things going on and we always need good minds.

 

[christine2448]

Great post in this thread, thought some might like to read, supposedly an actual juror posted here:


http://websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28070

 

[mysteriew]

:clap: Way to go Maddy! Thank you for speaking out. Don't worry about what the defense has said. Most of us here laugh at the defense attorney's (when we aren't calling them bad names) No one here felt that the juror's did anything less than a good job. I am especially reassured by the fact that you started with the idea that he was innocent, then followed the evidence to your conclusion. Give yourself a pat on the back from me!

 

[angelmom]

Maddie,

Thanks so much for replying to my question. I couldn't understand why the media kept referring to this incident but not explaining it, and I suppose that it was out of concern for the woman involved. I am shocked but appreciative of their sensitivity if that is the case. That story makes my blood run cold. The poor woman must have nightmares about what might have happened to her if Butch hadn't somehow gotten Shannon in his grasp. Talk about survivor guilt! And it must have been terrifying all those years that he was free, wondering if he would try to silence her before she could testify. I really feel for her.

Thank you also for the careful and deliberate job you and your fellow jurors did. No one wanted the wrong man convicted for this crime, and your thorough examination of the facts is a credit to the jury system and to each of your characters. I think you are wise not to speak to the media, since they can't help but look for the perfect sound bite to twist around for their own purpose (which is, IMHO, to stir up conflict - no one reads "everything's hunky dory...story page 5").

As a woman and mother of a girl living in the area where BH prowled, I am eternally grateful for your diligence and patience. Your post gives us a tremendous insight into what works, and can hopefully assist future DAs in seemingly hopeless cases. Thank you so much, and thanks for posting.

Jen aka Angelmom :blowkiss: