UTA student found in Africa fled after 1986 mistrial, will not be prosecuted in killing

In a south Arlington apartment shared by a university student and his girlfriend, the explosion and fire erupted early on a morning in January 1985.

Alec Malengho was 27 and a native of Zaire. Dawn Amadi, 22, was a citizen of Nigeria.

When the fire was extinguished, Amadi’s charred body was revealed in a bedroom.

A forensic pathologist concluded that Amadi had been stabbed in the chest. The fire was incendiary. Arson investigators said a petroleum distillate, perhaps gasoline, had been poured in the room.

A detective arrested Malengho, who also was burned, later in the day and he was indicted on murder and arson counts.

Thirteen months later, after deliberating for seven hours over two days, a jury at a trial on the arson count in 213th District Court in Tarrant County deadlocked. It was split six to six. Judge Tom Cave declared a mistrial.

Malengho, who was majoring in medical technology at the University of Texas at Arlington, was released on a $5,000 personal appearance bond. He was under a second murder indictment after Cave quashed the first because the state did not refer in the charging document to the killing’s manner and means.

It is not clear whether prosecutor Stan Hatcher was speaking to the court or to a reporter, but on the day the mistrial was ordered, Hatcher said the state intended to retry the case as soon as possible.

By July 1986, it appears Malengho was absent from court hearings, and his bond was held insufficient and an arrest warrant was issued.

There were no legal developments in the case for 36 years.

Last month there was significant movement. Law enforcement authorities located Malengho in Africa. Now 65, the fugitive, who had evaded retrial for more than three decades, had with his discovery become theoretically eligible for prosecution in connection with the homicide because his location was known and his arrest possible.

But a second trial will not occur.

The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office on Feb. 8 filed a motion to dismiss the indictment under its prosecutorial discretion. Judge Chris Wolfe, who currently presides in 213th District Court, granted the motion.

Criminal District Attorney Phil Sorrells wrote to a reporter in a statement that when his office received word the defendant may have been located, it looked into the case to determine whether it could be prosecuted.

The office considered the mistrial.

“Our further review showed the case is no longer viable based on the evidence and we could not go forward with the prosecution,” Sorrells wrote in the statement.

The case is an example of how a defendant can ease the dismissal of his case by, at least in part, creating a yearslong time gap between offense and disposition that imperils its prosecution. It is not clear what law enforcement efforts were made to locate Malengho earlier.

The case is not now on the radar of the Arlington Police Department’s homicide unit, according to department spokesperson Tim Ciesco. No one has contacted the unit’s detectives to ask for new investigative work on it.

The apartment complex, named Hidden Hollow and in the 2000 block of Coopers Corner Circle, no longer exists.

As firefighters worked to put out the fire on Jan. 24, 1985, officers encountered Malengho, who ran out of the apartment, police said. He suffered second-degree burns. Before he was taken to a hospital, he said his girlfriend was still inside.

Speaking to officers at the hospital, Malengho said he had been asleep in the living room and woke when he heard a smoke alarm. He said he went into the bedroom, saw the fire and tried to get Amadi out. His hair caught on fire, and he ran from the apartment.

Witnesses told officers they saw Malengho enter the apartment about five minutes before the fire started, contradicting his account. The witnesses also told officers they could smell a strong odor of gasoline before the fire.

The U.S. Marshals Service said it was involved with the Malengho case, but a deputy marshal referred questions to the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office.

Robbie Hoy, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, responded to a request for information about the case, but did not answer questions about precisely where, on what date and under what circumstances Malengho was found.