Man smothered girlfriend to death with bubble wrap
A South Carolina man has been convicted of murdering his live-in girlfriend with bubble wrap.
According to WTOC, Nick Russell Evangelista was sentenced to 45 years in prison on Thursday following three days of testimony.
In a release, 14th Circuit Solicitor's Office Prosecutor Hunter Swanson described the crime, in which the Hilton Head man smothered his victim, Rebecca Melton, with bubble wrap, as "a horrible act."
"It takes three to five minutes to make someone stop breathing with bubble wrap," he said.
"The sheer violence of the act and the vulnerability of the victim in her naked and unarmed state made it a horrible act and a nightmare scenario."
(Nick Evangelista via Beaufort County Detention)
Melton's body was discovered on Sept. 4, 2014, on a bedroom floor inside the home she and Evangelista shared.
Beaufort County Sheriff's Office deputies were called to the home for a welfare check after co-workers reported that they hadn't heard from Evangelista in a number of days. They entered the home with the help of Palmetto Dunes condominium security guards.
The victim's body was surrounded by green bubble wrap and blood, WTOC reported. Officials determined she had been dead at least a week.
Evangelista wasn't caught until Oct. 1, 2014. He was pulled over by deputies in Escambia County, Fl., after they spotted him driving Melton's Jeep Wrangler.
Authorities found a journal inside the vehicle, which contained a confession of guilt.
Swanson read an excerpt from the journal, in which Evangelista detailed abuse in his relationship with Melton.
"I took the life of a beautiful person," he wrote, going on to discuss a pattern of abuse that until the murder had been "verbal only, never physical."
Evangelista wrote that he "became something in the end" that he "couldn't control."
While his journal entries express remorse, officials say after the murder Evangelista took selfies on a prepaid cellphone and sent them to an escort, whom he invited back to his "upscale hotel."
