FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Jalisa Hill appeared in Broward bond court Friday morning as she faces charges in the killings of her grandparents.
Hill, 34, is accused of first-degree murder after police said she “worked in conjunction” with her former boyfriend, Maurice Anthony Newson, to murder her octogenarian grandparents, Major and Claudette Melvin at their Fort Lauderdale home on Southwest 30th Terrace.
The two were found shot to death and their vehicle was stolen. Police said the deadly shooting happened March 22.
Authorities arrested Newson, 30, in the murder case in late August.
Following the Melvins’ deaths, their red Ford Fusion was stolen from their driveway and immediately became the center of the investigation. Newson was linked to that car.
‘Rot in hell’: Relative reacts to arrest
About two weeks after the murders, it was located at a tow yard in Wilton Manors after a man tipped off police after seeing the vehicle on the news.
In Newson’s previous arrest warrants, police said Hill voluntarily submitted to a polygraph test and was “untruthful on the question of being involved in the death of her grandparents.”
According to court documents obtained Friday, Hill had told police after the killing that she was in line to inherit her grandparents’ home.
She resided with them. The court documents reference a note Hill wrote.
“Jalisa stated that she wrote the note at the beginning of the year to have a goal,” the court documents state. “This note showed a goal to fix up and renovate a home that, at the time, did not belong to her.”
Police said in a later interview, she would claim “she was never in line to receive her grandparents’ home.”
Read the court documents:
Authorities said she also filed an insurance claim for her grandparents’ stolen car without disclosing that they were dead.
Hill also sent Newson $1,000 on April 27 via an intermediary, according to detectives.
One of the Melvins’ children, Dennis Parker, had predicted Newson was “going to sing like a mockingbird” following his August arrest.
In an interview with Local 10 News on Friday, he reacted to Hill’s arrest.
“I’m going to stand in the gap for my mom and dad, OK?” Parker said. “If you had anything to do with it, like I said, I want you to rot in hell.”
Hill was being held without bond in the Broward Main Jail as of Friday afternoon.