FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Five months after a senior couple was murdered inside their Fort Lauderdale home, police made an arrest Tuesday. It’s someone the victims’ family knows well.
Maurice Anthony Newson, 30, of Davie, was charged with murdering Major and Claudette Melvin, a couple in their 80s, back on March 22. In addition to two counts of first-degree murder, he’s also charged with armed robbery.
Following their deaths, their red Ford Fusion was stolen from their driveway and immediately became the center of the investigation. Newson was linked to that car.
About two weeks after the murders, it was located at a tow yard in Wilton Manors.
According to Newson’s arrest warrant from that case, police had been tipped off about the vehicle on April 4 after a man flagged down a patrol officer in Fort Lauderdale.
That man told the officer that “the red vehicle seen all over the news related to the double homicide” was parked at 600 W. Oakland Park Blvd., the warrant states.
Detectives identified the person who sold it to the tow company as Newson. They say he took it on the same day the Melvins were killed, represented it as his own car, and sold it for $200.
Records show it was driven from the Melvins’ home to the Cypress Creek Tri-Rail station at 5910 NW Ninth Ave. in Fort Lauderdale.
He was arrested on May 23 and charged with theft of a motor vehicle and dealing in stolen property.
Ever since, Fort Lauderdale detectives have been working to see if Newson was involved in the murders, and Tuesday, they made their arrest.
At one point, Newson was in a relationship with the Melvins’ granddaughter, Jalisa Hill. We found her outside of her grandparents’ home. She didn’t have much to say to our camera.
“No comment,” she said.
According to the arrest warrant in the auto theft case, family members told police that Newson “had been coming around the home following the homicide, ‘acting strange’, and asking a lot of questions about what detectives were saying about the investigation.”
Hill voluntarily submitted to a polygraph test and detectives say she was “untruthful on the question of being involved in the death of her grandparents.”
The Melvins’ granddaughter gave conflicting information regarding who would inherit the Melvins’ home. She told police during one interview that she and her mother would be the sole heirs. In another interview, she said she was not in line to get the home, the warrant states.
Family members were emotional and relieved Tuesday to see Newson behind bars.
“My parents (were) real nice to Maurice,” Dennis Parker, the victims’ son, said. “I just can’t understand how the grim reaper, that’s what he was, (could) come in and murder my parents.”
“How could you do that?” he added. “You don’t kill angels and think you are going to get away with it.”
Parker said he believes there’s much more to his parents’ murder.
“It ain’t over with, because they got him now and he’s going to sing like a mockingbird,” he said.
“The investigation remains ongoing to determine if any other suspects were involved in the murders,” a police news release stated Tuesday.
Authorities asked anyone with information to call Fort Lauderdale police Detective Leann Swisher at 954-828-4007, the Homicide Tipline at 954-828-6677, or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.