On a cold January night in 1995, 15-year-old Melinda Wynns was at her friends' apartment in the Skyline Terrace complex in College Point, Queens, unaware of the horror that was about to unfold. She was with her friends, sisters Carla Lopez, 15, and Paola Lopez, 17, in the apartment they shared with their mother, Maria Esperanza Ramirez, 42, and her boyfriend, Alex DeJesus Calle Soto, 29.
Three men, Saul Angulo, 20, his uncle Enrique Rodriguez, 28, and Richard Iasasi, 40, forced their way
into the second-floor apartment, armed with guns. Over the next seven hours, they subjected the occupants to a terrifying ordeal. Another friend, 19-year-old Ana Figueroa, arrived at the apartment around 11:00 p.m. and was met by a visibly shaken Carla at the door. She was then led to the master bedroom where the other three teenagers were being held at gunpoint. The assailants were searching for money and valuables, forcing the girls to help them search and hand over any jewelry they had.
The night descended into a brutal massacre. The victims were moved from room to room as they heard Ramirez, Calle Soto, and another man, Pablo Gomez, 30, being executed. The attackers then turned on the young women. Melinda Wynns, along with Carla and Paola Lopez, Maria Esperanza Ramirez, Alex DeJesus Calle Soto, and Pablo Gomez, were all tragically killed. The victims were bound and subjected to unimaginable violence, being shot, stabbed, choked, and slashed.
In a miraculous turn of events, Ana Figueroa survived the attack. After being shot in the face by Angulo and having her throat cut by Rodriguez, she was thrown into a closet and left for dead. Despite her grievous injuries, she managed to survive and provide crucial testimony that would bring the killers to justice. Her harrowing account of begging for her life as the attackers decided her fate painted a chilling picture of the senseless brutality of the crime.
The investigation led to the arrests of the three perpetrators. Enrique Rodriguez and Saul Angulo were apprehended, and after a trial where the jury deliberated for six hours, Rodriguez was convicted on six counts of intentional murder, four counts of felony murder, one count of attempted murder, five counts of robbery, and two counts of weapons possession. Both Rodriguez and Angulo were sentenced to 170 years in prison. Richard Iasasi, the third attacker, fled to Mexico but was eventually apprehended by detectives and extradited back to New York City. Iasasi confessed in a written statement to the murders of the men but denied any part in the killing of the women. He was also sentenced to over 170 years in prison, receiving six consecutive indeterminate sentences of twenty-five years to life. An appeal he motioned for in 2004, on the grounds that he was not read his Miranda rights and that his extradition was improper, was denied.
