Suspect charged in cold case: Melvin Jones accused of killing deaf woman in 1994
Melvin Jones
MILWAUKEE -- A 46-year-old man from Redgranite, WI is charged in connection with the death of a Milwaukee woman in October 1994. The accused is Melvin Jones.
The body of the victim in this case was found dumped in a trash cart near Martin Luther King Dr. and Vine St. on October 22, 1994. Several days after the discovery of the body, the woman was positively identified as 24-year-old Ophelia Preston, a deaf woman.
The criminal complaint against Jones indicates "Preston died as a result of asphyxia due to strangulation by ligature" (or some type of cord). But in May 2013, Preston's case was reviewed once again -- because a suspect had not been identified. That review later determined "the primary cause of Ophelia Preston's death was asphyxia by manual strangulation."
DNA samples from Preston were submitted to the Wisconsin State Crime Lab to determine if advances in DNA technology would lead to the identification of a suspect in the case -- and it did. The DNA pointed to Melvin Jones as the source of the DNA.
The complaint indicates Jones was already serving a prison sentence for the 2001 crack cocaine-related sexual assault homicide of Alfreda Hicks -- when he was identified as a suspect in the Preston case.
When investigators interviewed Jones, the complaint says Jones and Preston may have had a "dope date" and went to a vacant home to smoke crack cocaine. He told investigators "he wanted to have sex" after smoking the crack, but Preston did not. Jones "admitted that 'I didn't kill her but I probably raped her.'"
If convicted, Jones faces up to life in prison.
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