Conviction again overturned for former Death Row inmate accused of 1981 Newport Beach murder

A 67-year-old man once plucked from Death Row who was ordered to instead serve life in prison without the possibility of parole after his most recent trial has once again seen his sentenced overturned, this time by an appellate court.

With a panel of California Court of Appeals judges deciding to overturn James Andrew Melton’s special-circumstances murder conviction, prosecutors will now be forced to decide whether to pursue a fourth trial related to the 1981 killing of Antony Lial DeSousa.

In a written opinion released Monday, the appellate judges questioned a “retrospective competency” hearing held before Melton’s most recent trial, which was meant to determine whether he was mentally competent during a 1982 preliminary hearing.

“Under the particular circumstances of this case, at a distance of 35 years, and without any expert competency evaluations at the time of the preliminary hearing, we do not believe that any trial court could fairly come to a reliable conclusion that Melton was mentally competent at the preliminary hearing,” the judges wrote.

Officials with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said they will review the decision with the state Attorney General’s Office, which handled the appeal, before deciding how to proceed.

Melton was accused of using advertisements in gay magazines to meet rich, older men who he could rob. Prosecutors say Melton met DeSousa through such an ad before robbing the 77-year-old retiree and strangling him at his Newport Beach condo.

Melton has been behind bars since his 1981 arrest. He was sentenced to death in 1982, and spent more than a decade on Death Row at San Quentin. But the question of his competency has long lingered over the case.

In 2007, a federal judge ruled that Melton had been over-medicated by jail staff during his trial, preventing him from understanding the proceedings. A subsequent retrial in 2013 ended with jurors deadlocked 10-2 in favor of conviction.

Leading up to Melton’s third trial, prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty, partly because of the case’s age.

A key witness against Melton was his former prison lover, Johnny Boyd, who claimed that the pair had hatched a plan while serving time together in 1980 at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo, to target rich, older men.

Boyd, saying he set up a dinner date between DeSousa and Melton, said that Melton admitted to killing DeSousa and claimed to have seen Melton wearing DeSousa’s jewelry.

Boyd died of AIDS in 1992, but jurors were presented with his testimony from the 1982 preliminary hearing.

The appellate judges, in this week’s ruling, determine that introducing that testimony in the retrial was improper and prejudicial, because prosecutors couldn’t prove Melton was competent enough to assist with his own defense at the preliminary hearing.

During his last trial, Melton’s attorney described Boyd as a spurned lover with a history of lying.

Melton’s previous conviction had already been questioned by his attorney over allegations of juror misconduct.

While his 2018 trial was underway, an alternate juror discussed the case with a manicurist at a Fountain Valley nail salon, a conversation overheard by a court clerk.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Gregg L. Prickett had declined to set a new trial, ruling there was no indication the alternate juror was biased against Melton, or that any outside information was passed on to other jurors.