Hilton Head man suffocated girlfriend with bubble wrap, solicitor says
A Hilton Head Island man, accused of suffocating his girlfriend with bubble wrap in their Palmetto Dunes condo in August will remain behind bars as he awaits his murder trial.
Nick Evangelista, 53, was denied bond Wednesday by Beaufort County Circuit Court Judge Carmen Mullen, who said she believed he poses a flight risk and a danger to the community. She noted that after Evangelista's live-in girlfriend, Rebecca Melton, was killed Aug. 26, he stole her Jeep and left the state.
"That gave me great concern," Mullen said.
It was the outcome 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone had asked for. A few minutes earlier, he had told Mullen that Evangelista killed Melton, 55, during a fight as the couple prepared to move out of their St. Andrews Common condominium in Palmetto Dunes.
The defendant held Melton down by placing his knees on her chest and then smothered her with bubble wrap, and afterward, he checked her pulse, Stone said.
Melton's daughter, Mollie, put her head down and cried as the solicitor spoke. She and her brother, Zac, declined to speak in court.
Their mother was found dead Sept. 4 after security guards conducted a health -and-welfare check at the condo. Evangelista was found Oct. 1 in Melton's Jeep in Pensacola, Fla.
In the back of a patrol car, he told Florida authorities he killed Melton and reiterated that to officers during an interview, Stone said.
Evangelista's public defender, Trasi Campbell, described Evangelista as a Navy veteran, a physician's assistant in Savannah and on Hilton Head Island since 2002, and an involved and present father to two sons -- one who is in college and the other in high school.
She said her client had no prior criminal record and had been "mired in a relationship of battery" with Melton.
The couple were involved in several incidents of domestic violence, though neither was convicted, according to the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office and Hilton Head Island Municipal Court.
"Most times, you're faced with a woman in this position, and this time, there's a man," Campbell said.
She asked the judge to set a bond of $75,000 with electronic monitoring, as Evangelista has friends and family who wished to support him in the months ahead.
Mullen responded that she might consider granting Evangelista bond if he chose to seek some kind of treatment from a secured facility. Campbell said that would not be the case.
Evangelista is also charged with two counts of violating drug-distribution laws and is accused of writing Melton two prescriptions for clonazepam though she was not his patient, according to the Sheriff's Office. He was granted a $10,000 bond on those charges.
Evangelista's case will go before a grand jury in the next few months, Stone said.
Follow reporter Rebecca Lurye on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Rebecca.
Related content:
- Autopsy rules Hilton Head woman suffocated to death , October 7, 2014
- 4th domestic violence report involving dead Hilton Head woman, missing roommate released , September 10, 2014
This story was originally published October 22, 2014 at 9:57 AM with the headline "Hilton Head man suffocated girlfriend with bubble wrap, solicitor says."