Jury quick to convict fiend in viral video
AN ABUSIVE creep who forced his exgirlfriend to march around naked in front of his building in Harlem two years ago was thrown in jail Friday, minutes after a jury convicted him of coercion and related counts.
After the verdict, Justice Robert Mandelbaum revoked Jasson Melo’s bail, which will keep him behind bars at least until he’s sentenced Jan. 3.
Melo, 26, who was stone-faced as the verdict was read in Manhattan Supreme Court, faces up to seven years behind bars on the top count.
The aggression-prone control freak tried to win over the panel with a farfetched claim that the victim, whose name the Daily News is withholding, agreed to the nude walk in the freezing cold in January 2016 in an attempt to seek his forgiveness after he found texts from other men in her phone.
But in a video Melo took that went viral, the woman is seen scrambling for cover behind vehicles. She testified that she had begged him to spare her the humiliation.
It took the jury less than five hours to convict Melo of forcing his partner of three years, now 24, to undress and walk around in public as payback for flirting and sexting with other men.
She testified that he threatened to bash her with a metal Buddha statue if she did not undress and walk outdoors.
The woman moved to another state and dyed her hair blond after the embarrassing episode because she was recognized on the street and was terrified of him — for herself and their child, who was about 2 months old at the time.
“I felt mortified. It was horrible,” she testified earlier this week.
Melo dragged out her pain by making himself a social media celebrity, promoting the footage and participating in a music video that mocked the woman with an actress reenacting the scene.
He also tried to sell T-shirts with quotes from the recording, marketing the $20 garments on his Instagram page.
She said he was controlling and jealous throughout their relationship — which was ending at the time of the episode.
Melo’s lawyer Theodore Herlich said his client would appeal the verdict.