co-defendants are on record saying melton played a key role, that he not only participated in the crimes but was actually a guest at the party. part of a plan in which melton would case the location for the others. if he gets found guilty, he d rather go down saying he fought going down instead of, oh, i didn t take no plea like the rest of them. but when you fight, you ain t doing nothing but pissing them off. you making the judge and victims go through this night again, all this distraught, emotional. so if you do lose, you going to get hit with the max. melton says his co-defendants lack credibility. four against one. that is pretty bad odds, but four criminals. you know? even though hodges, jones and townes have all pled guilty to criminal sexual conduct, they deny having committed the acts. the victim stated she could not identify their faces because they were masked. but according to hodges, some of the victims were still able to
occurred almost a year ago. 26-plus years on the bench, one of the worst cases that i ve seen. each one of the four defendants here pled guilty to criminal sexual conduct first degree, and whether they participated directly or were aiders and abettors, there s no difference in the law. all four of these defendants were clearly involved. any one of you could have intervened and stopped it short of a really horrific criminal sexual assault. though each of the four men has agreed to a plea that allows for maximum sentences, they have banked on the judge being lenient. the first to be sentenced is rederick melton. first of all, on armed robbery, the sentence of this
co-defendant was resolved. rederick melton proclaimed his innocence. he has voluntarily spent the past seven months in a sparse segregation cell preparing for trial. but now there has been a major development. and melton is headed back to general population. after nearly a year of proclaiming his innocence, melton has changed his plea. now that i ve already pled guilty i m going to go to prison. so i don t want to be over there until i ride it out. so i just came over here. what made you decide to plead guilty? more evidence was, at the last minute, was brought up against me. so i decided to swallow my pride on some of the charges i didn t do for sure and take the plea, you know. pled no contest. fight it on appeal. what did you plead to exactly? i pled guilty to all charges except csc.
they are required to wait, because the fourth adult suspect, rederick melton, pled not guilty and is taking his case to trial. none of the victims were able to i.d. me at the scene or the party. there is no dna evidence against me, there are no fingerprints against me. there is no actual physical evidence against me. on a scale from 1 to 10, i m at a 9. about being found innocent. i know, the lord knows, i didn t do this. he ll judge me. i know justice will be served. when you say justice will be served, tell me what that means to you. me going home. you know? the truth coming out. showing that people are lying. you know? perjury. lying under oath. but all of melton s co-defendants are on record
the charges are home invasion, armed robbery and criminal sexual conduct. the victim of the latter crime was a female college student. people versus rederick melton. people versus brandon townes. people versus james hodges jr. people versus dorian jones. for the record, we have all four defendants with their respective counsel. mr. becker. your honor, these kids are ready for sentencing at this point in time. i know we have a victim that wishes to speak and address the court all at once. i ll hear from the victim first, please. you do not need to state your name. go ahead, please. this whole crime has honestly been the hardest struggle i ve ever been through. i ve dreaded this whole process, dreaded it for the fact i have to look in these faces. i ve lost countless hours of sleep trying to avoid the nightmares of that night