Ex-convict charged with murdering elderly Watertown woman in August

Jan. 6—WATERTOWN — An ex-convict charged Friday with murdering an elderly Watertown woman was arrested multiple times on felony counts in the days and weeks surrounding the killing, but was only held on bail the day after her body was discovered.

Jonathan E. Melendez, 39, Watertown, is charged with second-degree murder, first-degree assault, third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and tampering with physical evidence in connection with the August murder of Rena L. Eves at her Beaver Meadow apartment in the town of Watertown.

The charges were contained in a grand jury indictment unsealed Friday in Jefferson County Court.

It is alleged in the indictment that sometime between Aug. 25 and Aug. 27 he caused the death of Eves, 88, by repeatedly striking her about the head and body with a hammer at her apartment. It is further alleged that he tampered with evidence by attempting to clean up the crime scene.

Eves was a registered nurse who had worked at Carthage Area Hospital and Samaritan Medical Center and who worked 55 years at the former Mercy Hospital, retiring as a registered nurse supervisor. She was a longtime volunteer at Watertown's Trinity Episcopal Church, attending services each Sunday and greeting worshippers.

She regularly helped out in the church's office and for many years she handled the church's card ministry, which included writing greeting cards, offering baptismal congratulations and sending condolences.

Melendez was arrested five times on felony criminal contempt charges between mid-July and Aug. 27, including once each on Aug. 25 and Aug. 27, with the Aug. 27 arrest based on a complaint of an incident that occurred Aug. 26. On each of the first four arrests, he was released without bail, although one criminal contempt count lodged in July was dismissed following a preliminary hearing in City Court.

On Aug. 27 — the day after Eves was found murdered — Melendez was arrested at her residence on the final criminal contempt count. He was arraigned in City Court on that charge and ordered held without bail by Judge Anthony M. Neddo.

According to court documents, at the time of the final three arrests, Melendez provided police with either Eves's Eimicke Place address or an adjacent apartment as his address. District Attorney Kristyna S. Mills declined to comment on the nature of the relationship between Melendez and Eves beyond saying that they knew each other.

In July, Melendez was charged with criminal contempt and criminal obstruction of breathing, among other counts. Details about that case were unavailable Friday, but following his July 14 arraignment in City Court, he was placed on pre-trial release under probation supervision and Judge Eric T. Swartz issued an order of protection on the presumed victim's behalf. He was again arrested July 19 on a criminal contempt charge, although that was the count dismissed following a hearing.

On Aug. 16, Melendez was charged with criminal contempt after a Department of Social Services caseworker told police he saw Melendez and Yanaliz Sanchez-Davilla walking together on Washington Street, with the caseworker informing police he was familiar with both parties and was aware that Sanchez-Davilla held an order of protection against Melendez. Melendez was arraigned in City Court and ordered to continue on pre-trial release.

Early in the morning of Aug. 25, Sanchez-Davilla notified police that Melendez was ringing her doorbell and sitting on her front porch, in violation of the order of protection. According to court documents, when police arrived, Melendez denied knowing that Sanchez-Davilla lived at the residence. Sanchez-Davilla showed police text messages allegedly from Melendez and footage from a Ring camera that showed him walking by the residence on her porch, ringing the bell. She also told police Melendez yelled for her at a window and that she was "afraid" of him and wanted him arrested.

Mills said that at his arraignment on that count, her office argued that Melendez be sent to jail on bail, but he was allowed to continue on pre-trial release.

"It is certainly our position that he should have been held on bail on the morning of the 25th," Mills said Friday. "It is our position that he should have never been released that morning."

The next day, Aug. 26, it is alleged that he again violated Sanchez-Davilla's order of protection by grabbing her by the arm and pulling her out of a car in the 200 block of Mullin Street. He was arrested on that criminal contempt count the next day at Eves's apartment and, following arraignment, was ordered held without bail by Judge Neddo.

At a subsequent hearing in County Court, Melendez's attorney requested that an unspecified amount of bail be set to cover all known charges, with prosecutors asking that $50,000 bail be set, noting to Judge David A. Renzi that Melendez has six prior felony convictions and two parole violations on his record. Judge Renzi responded by setting bail at $100,000, double what prosecutors requested.

At Friday's arraignment on the murder and other counts contained in the indictment, Judge Renzi ordered Melendez held without bail. He has been incarcerated since Aug. 27. He is due back in court Feb. 27.

Melendez has twice served time in state prison. He was sentenced in Jefferson County Court in October 2015 to 1 1/2 to 3 years in prison after pleading guilty in September 2015 to first-degree criminal contempt and admitting to violating probation.

He was charged Sept. 14, 2014, with violating an order of protection held by Tasha A. Vincent by grabbing her by the hair and attempting to drag her to the ground. At the time he was serving three years' probation imposed in County Court in August 2014 after a third-degree assault conviction. He violated supervision by being charged with the new crime. He was sentenced in 2015 as a second-felony offender, having been convicted of third-degree attempted burglary in September 2010 in Nassau County.

He was also sentenced in 2021 to two to four years in prison for convictions on two counts of first-degree criminal contempt and a single count of third-degree criminal mischief. Further information about those counts was not available.

He was acquitted in June 2021 in County Court of seven violent felonies. Following trial, he was found not guilty of four counts of first-degree criminal sex act, two counts of first-degree rape and single counts of first-degree burglary, first-degree attempted sexual abuse, third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, attempted forcible touching, unlawful imprisonment, second-degree menacing and criminal obstruction of breathing.

The charges in that case alleged that Melendez raped a 40-year-old woman, choked her and struck her in the face with a knife. The jury rejected each allegation, although he was convicted of one count of criminal contempt, a nonviolent felony.