WARREN — Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins is opposing parole for two violent convicted felons who are incarcerated at the Richland Correctional Institution and are both up for parole this month.

Christopher Daniel, 57, is the co-defendant in the 1988 beating death of George Melnick, 65, and the severely injuring of his wife, Katherine, during a home invasion at their Wick Street SE home on Aug. 15, 1988. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, attempted murder, aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery and was sentenced on March 17, 1989, to a prison term of 37 to 100 years by the late Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Mitchell Shaker.

Watkins said this is Daniel’s seventh parole request, after previously being denied release in 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019 and 2023.

Daniel’s co-defendant, Andre Williams, was sentenced to death after he was found guilty in 1989 on charges of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery and attempted rape.

The two men broke into the couple’s home, stoning and beating both and robbing them of about $2,000, credit cards and a VCR. Daniel hit Katherine Melnick, 64, with a piece of cinder brick while she was washing dishes.

“The velocity of this missile thrown at the victim was so severe that after hitting her head, the cinder block went through the kitchen window where she was standing. Mrs. Melnick was also beaten with an ax handle. She was blinded in the attack and spent the rest of her life in a nursing home, where she died in 2012. Before leaving the home, Daniel watched as Williams sexually attacked the woman, while she lay unconscious and bleeding on the kitchen floor,” Watkins wrote in a news release.

Other surviving family members at previous parole hearings submitted videotaped victim impact statements. The family members have told Watkins they will request a full board hearing, if necessary, to continue their quest for a just punishment for both Andre Williams and Christopher Daniel.

In a 2023 letter to the parole board, Watkins stated that “on the Richter scale measure of violence and suffering, these crimes are off the charts. Therefore, in my view, no punishment can be too great for inmate Daniel.”

Additionally, Watkins cites in a new letter to the parole board a recent serious rules infraction committed by Daniel in prison in August 2023 involving outrageous sexual conduct with another inmate where Daniel was disciplined. This infraction was committed after Watkins’ April 2023 letter opposing Daniel’s parole.

“Civilized nations don’t tolerate savage, barbaric attacks of senior citizens in their homes. Please keep Mr. Daniel in prison. Daniel has only served the minimum sentence of 37 years the judge gave him in this case, which provides for a 100-year maximum. End of story,” Watkins wrote in his letter.

ALFONSIA PERRY CASE

Alfonsia Perry, 68, was sentenced to 20-years-to-life on Nov. 10, 1994, by former Trumbull County Common Pleas Judges W. Wyatt McKay and John Stuard after being convicted of aggravated murder, three counts of felonious assault and inciting violence.

He was convicted of brutally beating to death his girlfriend, Jeanette Purdue, 34, at her home in Hubbard. He also was convicted in the attack of three corrections officers at the Trumbull County jail while awaiting trial, which led to the felonious assault and inciting violence charges

Perry hit her 71 times in the head with wooden bed slats and an ax handle in front of her children, ages 8 and 6, who testified at his trial.

Watkins said this is the fourth time Perry has requested parole since 2007. He also said Perry had previously been profiled as a “poster person for domestic violence.”