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
court that you be committed to the michigan department of corrections for a term not less than 18 or more than 40 years. and then consecutive to that, you are to serve on home invasion first degree, sentence of not less than 7, no more than 20 years. and then finally consecutive to home invasion first degree and criminal sexual conduct first degree, serve on the second home invasion not less than 18, no more than 40 years with the michigan department of corrections. the judge has sentenced melton to a total of 43 to 100 years in state prison. then it s on to the others. three counts of criminal sexual conduct first degree, a term of not less than 18, no more than 40 years. a term of not less than 20, no more than 40 years. your guidelines are higher, mr.
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 victims were still able to identify melton. they had a party that night. so he went to the party. so they can all identify him being there. and then when she seen his body build, she oh, yeah, he was tall, skinny, this and this and that. what does the victim say about you? what was your role? the victim didn t say anything about me. what did the victim say? the victim said she was raped, but she didn t say i raped her. she didn t it s like this. the victim said they didn t see anybody. what was her description? because she gave a description of the person who raped her. correct? somebody dipping in my case? i think we re done here. put me in my room. somebody dipping in my case. i m done. come get this mike off. i m done with this [ bleep ]. [ bleep ] off me.