Jan 3, 2002

Death Row Prisoner Granted New Trial

BARTOW - A Polk County man who has been on Florida's death row for 18 years might be free within a few days, one of his appeal attorneys said Wednesday.

On Dec. 6, Hillsborough Circuit Judge Barbara Fleischer granted Juan Roberto Melendez a new trial, based on new evidence and evidence the state withheld during his trial that would have helped the defense, said attorney Martin McClain, who represents Melendez for the Capital Collateral Regional Council, a state agency that represents death row inmates.

The Polk County State Attorney's Office has filed notice it does not intend to appeal Fleischer's ruling, and McClain said a Polk County assistant public defender told him the state intends to dismiss the charges against Melendez.

Polk State Attorney Jerry Hill, who was not in office at the time of Melendez's trial, said he could not comment on whether the charges will be dropped.

Melendez, 50, a fruit picker, was sentenced to death in 1984 for the 1983 murder of Delbert ``Mr. Del'' Baker. Baker was shot three times in the head and his throat was slashed in his Auburndale beauty salon. Melendez also was convicted of armed robbery.

A co-defendant, John Berrien, was placed on probation after testifying that he drove his cousin, George Berrien, and Melendez to the beauty salon. George Berrien never was charged because of insufficient evidence, McClain said.

The state's key witness, David Falcon, testified Melendez confessed to him about killing Baker. Falcon has died, and John Berrien partially has recanted his testimony, McClain said.

At trial, the defense contended a man named Vernon James committed the murder. A jail inmate testified that James, while in jail on unrelated charges, told him that he committed the murder and that Melendez was not involved. Another defense witness said he saw two men in the back room of the beauty salon and thought one of them was James.

James, who took the Fifth Amendment when placed on the witness stand, was murdered in 1986.

Judge Fleischer ruled on the new trial motion because Polk judges had removed themselves from the case. Polk Circuit Judge Roger Alcott was Melendez's defense attorney.

Among other factors favoring a new trial, Fleischer ruled that prosecutor Hardy Pickard should have disclosed to the defense that James told a state attorney's investigator in a jail interview that he was present when Baker was killed and Melendez was not involved.

``We didn't think it had to be disclosed,'' Pickard said Wednesday.

McClain said new witnesses have been located who said James confessed to the crime and one who saw blood on James' clothing shortly after the murder. James gave different accounts, saying in some that he was not in the room when two friends killed Baker, McClain said. James did not identify the two friends but said Melendez was not involved, he said.

Reporter Bill Heery can be reached at (863) 683-6538.

This story can be found at : http://tampatrib.com/FloridaMetro/MGAM8MW00WC.html

01/03/2002 12:01:33
Florida death row inmate to be released, 99th freed nationwide

By VICKIE CHACHERE

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) _ A man who has spent 17 years on death row will be freed after prosecutors decided Thursday not to try him again in the slaying of a Polk County cosmetology school owner.

Juan Melendez, 50, had lost several rounds of appeals and had his death sentence upheld by the Florida Supreme Court until the transcript of another man's confession to the crime was discovered in 1999.

Defense attorneys said the true killer, a now deceased man named Vernon James, confessed to at least four investigators or attorneys, but none of those admissions were ever admitted into court. No physical evidence linked Melendez to the crime.

``I'm happy to finally have it over and to have Juan released,'' said attorney Marty McClain, who pursued his appeal. ``But it really is a sad day that the system allowed this to happen and for it to go on so long.''

Melendez was granted a new trial in December, but the Polk County State Attorney's Office will not take the case back before a jury because one of the only two witnesses against Melendez has recanted and the other is now dead, said Chip Thullbery, administrative assistant state attorney.

``That leaves us, frankly, with nothing to proceed on,'' Thullbery said.

Prosecutors, though, offered no apologies for the way the case was handled in 1986.

``You have a lot of people looking back over a lot of different years and you have somebody in prison who decided to recant his testimony,'' said Thullbery, who was not involved in the original prosecution. ``We can't try the case now, but it certainly was a case that needed to be tried then.''

Prosecutors did not know how long it would take for Melendez to be freed. He is currently being held at Union Correctional Institution. The Department of Corrections said that information was not immediately available.

Melendez is the 99th death row inmate to be freed nationwide since 1973 after being exonerated, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based anti-death penalty group.