Man who murdered partner jailed for at least 19 years

A man who was repeatedly violent to his partner before killing her has been jailed for a minimum of 19 years.

Natasha Melendez, aged 32 and formerly from Venezuela, was attacked at her home in Lisburn, Co Antrim, on March 22 2020 and died from her injuries on April 1 of the same year.

John David Scott, aged 36 with an address listed as Maghaberry Prison, was sentenced at Belfast Crown Court on Friday having earlier entered a plea of guilty to her murder.

Ms Melendez’s mother Maria De Los Angeles Mejias, along with several other family members, watched proceedings remotely from Florida, and in a statement described a “long and gruelling wait for justice”.

The court heard she had been beaten “beyond recognition” and had died after a “devastating stroke” which was the result of damage to a major artery supplying blood to her brain.

Prior to her death, Ms Melendez had expressed a fear that Scott, the father of one of her four children, would kill her.

The sentencing hearing was observed via video link by her mother Maria Mejias in Florida as well as other relatives.

Mr Justice O’Hara said the murder of Ms Melendez was the end result of Scott’s “repeated violence against her”.

Scott also pleaded guilty to the charges of grievous bodily harm with intent, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and common assault against Ms Melendez.

These charges span a period between December 1 2019 and March 2020.

The court was told they included an “exceptionally violent” incident in which Scott threw a vacuum at the victim, and also jumped hard and repeatedly on her prone body while holding on to a headboard, resulting in broken ribs and facial swelling.

In a separate incident, Scott was said to have attacked Ms Melendez while she was in a car before she got out and escaped to an off-licence.

The court heard staff at the premises reported that she asked them not to contact police as she was afraid he would kill her.

The judge said: “Guess what, she turned out to be right.”

The prosecution said it was a domestic violence case, involving gratuitous violence with extensive and multiple injuries on a vulnerable victim before her death.

It said the murder was the accumulation of cruel and violent behaviour over a period of time.

The judge said the only mitigating factors he could recognise were “some signs of remorse” as well as the “horrible childhood” Scott had endured which led to addiction and mental health problems.

However he said personal circumstances carry less weight in murder cases.

The judge said he did not regard the case as “anywhere near the borderline between murder and manslaughter”.

Mr Justice O’Hara said Ms Melendez was a “particularly vulnerable young woman”, adding that Scott had acknowledged a disparity in their sizes.

“In addition to that, she was a drug addict who he beat up again and again and again until he killed her.”

The judge said that while Scott had said he had suffered injuries, there was no evidence that he had been injured by her hands to any degree of note.

He said the evidence showed that when he attacked her, he inflicted extensive and multiple injuries on her before the final assault.

The judge accepted the murder was not premeditated but added that it was a foreseeable end result of how he had treated her.

He said: “What on earth did he think might happen to her if he beat her up again and again and again and again?

“She begged the staff in the off-licence not to call the police because she was afraid he would kill her, and that is exactly what he did.”

The judge said he had received “exceptionally moving” victim impact statements from Ms Melendez’s mother, two of her aunts, and one of her children.

He said her mother found it impossible to put into words the “suffering the cruel murder has caused” and that her grandchildren had struggled to find peace.

Ms Melendez’s teenage son said he was made fun of and bullied when his mother’s murder was reported.

He said: “I will never know if my mum would have been able to get better and I could have spent more time with her.

“I had to start secondary school without my mum knowing, and I think of all the big things in my life she will miss out on.

“I just feel like my life will never be the same without her and every birthday I see as a constant reminder of her.”

Reading a pre-sentence report from the probation service, the judge said Scott had expressed that Ms Menendez did not deserve what happened to her and said: “I genuinely loved her to bits.

“I want forgiveness I need to do right by her. That’s why I pleaded guilty. I took her from her family and kids.”

In arriving at the length of the sentence, the judge was asked to take note of delays in proceedings due to the “unusual” impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Scott was initially arrested on March 26 2020 but was not interviewed until January 2022.

In the middle of that 22-month period, he was also in custody in relation to assault of police officers.

In effect, the court heard that he was in custody for the matters relating to Ms Melendez alone for approximately 12.5 months – but the exact time would be worked out at a later stage.

Announcing his decision, the judge put a provision that that period would be taken off the sentence – as there would be no administrative way for the prison service to declare that as a period of remand.

It was not open to the judge to implement consecutive sentences for the other offences to which Scott pleaded guilty, but he was able to use them as an aggravating factor in arriving at the final tariff.

Scott was given a life sentence with a minimum tariff of 19 years before his release can be considered.

The judge said this would be reduced at a later date to account for the time he spent in custody in relation to the matters during the pandemic, when a final determination on the exact number of days had been made.

In her statement outside court read by Detective Chief Inspector Kerrie Foreman, Maria De Los Angeles Mejias described her daughter Natasha as a “vibrant woman, full of life, cheerful, and talkative”.

“The word that best defines her is ‘fearless’,” she said.

“She was also a mother of four children, the oldest being 10 years old and the youngest just five months old when she was taken from us. Her children will never know who she truly was.

“The suffering he has caused my family, including my son Andres, who was deeply affected by his sister’s loss, is impossible to put into words.

“My parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, and Natasha’s children all feel the unbearable void she left behind.”

She added: “The past five years have been a long and gruelling wait for justice – five years filled with fear, anguish, and uncertainty as to whether the system would fail us, whether he would be released, whether his clear attempts to evade accountability and delay the justice process would succeed.

“You took a life, a life that meant the world to me, to her children, to her family, and to her friends.”

Ms Foreman described a “tragic case of domestic homicide”.

“Sadly, we know that domestic abuse can take many forms, including emotional and physical abuse, and we know that it can affect anyone,” she said.

“In this case, an appalling and ultimate act of violence has taken a young woman’s life.

“I am keen to encourage any victim of abuse, whatever your circumstances, to please come forward.  We will listen to you and treat you with the utmost sensitivity.

“Please contact us on 101, report online at www.psni.police.uk/report, or in an emergency call 999.”