Trial date set for granddaughter, boyfriend in murder of her Broward grandparents
The granddaughter accused of being involved in the brutal murder of her grandparents inside their Fort Lauderdale home will face a jury next year, alongside her boyfriend.
The trial of Jalisa Hill, 36, and Maurice Anthony Newson Jr., 32, will begin with jury selection on Jan. 20, 2027, according to court records. Hill and Newson are both charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of Claudette, 85, and Major Melvin, 89, Hill’s grandparents.
For weeks, the Melvins’ murders were shrouded in mystery, with loved ones and neighbors wondering who would want to harm the close-knit couple. But as more details emerged, a plot unraveled.
The couple was married for nearly six decades and had lived in Fort Lauderdale’s Melrose Manors neighborhood, a suburban neighborhood just west of I-95, for 50 years at the time of the March 22, 2024, killings. The Melvins had 11 children and about 28 grandchildren.
“I have so many good memories,” daughter Tonya Mitchell previously told the Miami Herald. “I don’t want to think about what happened to them... The way they went out, that’s a tragedy.”
Hill worked with Newson to kill her grandparents, police say, although her specific role in the double murder remains unclear. Newson is accused of being the gunman who then stole the couple’s red Ford Fusion. He sold it to a tow-truck driver weeks later. The two are being detained in a Broward jail.
The tow-truck driver had purchased the car for $200, though he contacted his boss after seeing the car on the news. Investigators determined the number the seller used during the exchange was a TextNow number, which was later linked to Newson, according to the warrant.
Newson is facing a slew of charges related to the killings, including robbery, burglary and grand-theft auto.
READ MORE: $200, a red car and an arrest? Questions loom in murders of elderly Broward couple
Detectives also kept an eye on Hill from the beginning of their investigation, court records show.
Early on, they questioned Hill, confronting her with paperwork found in her room — including a list of property expenses for her grandparents’ home. She told detectives that she didn’t own a property, but she was “going to be the one in line to receive [her grandparents’] home.”
In April that year, Hill sat through a polygraph test, which determined she was “untruthful on the question of being involved in the death of her grandparents Claudette and Major Melvin,” records show.
READ MORE: ‘That’s a tragedy’: Couple married for almost 60 years killed in Broward home invasion
In another interview, Hill “changed her answers on [questions] she was previously asked” and denied being next to inherit the house, according to police.
The next hearing is scheduled for March 10. Broward Circuit Court Judge George Odom will preside over the trial.
