Michael Mele Case: Laura Garza’s Murder, Plea, and Sentencing

The Michael Mele case is the 2008 killing of 25-year-old Laura Garza, a Brooklyn dancer from McAllen, Texas, by a registered New York sex offender who met her at a Manhattan nightclub, suffocated her at his Orange County apartment, and dumped her body in the Pennsylvania woods. Mele pleaded guilty to manslaughter and evidence tampering on January 23, 2012, and was sentenced to 23 years in prison plus five years of post-release supervision.¹

Who Laura Garza Was

Laura Garza grew up in McAllen, Texas, a city on the Mexico border. She had studied at Pace University and moved to Brooklyn about five months before she disappeared, chasing a career in dance.²³ She is survived by her mother, Elizabeth Esquivel, and her brothers Ivan and Nicolas.

The Night at Marquee

In the early morning hours of December 3, 2008, Garza met Mele at Marquee, a nightclub in Chelsea.⁴ Mele had come to the club with a friend from Dutchess County.⁵ Surveillance cameras recorded the two of them leaving together.⁶ Mele then drove Garza roughly 60 miles north to his apartment in the Town of Wallkill.

According to Mele’s later confession, Garza saw a photograph of his girlfriend in the apartment, became upset, and demanded to be taken home. Mele said he grew angry and put his hand over her mouth and nose to stop her from yelling, suffocating her.² He put her body in a laundry basket, covered it with a blanket, and drove it to a remote area near Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he dumped the remains.⁶

Mele’s Sex-Offender History

Mele already had a documented history of sexual offenses when he met Garza. In 2007 he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor sex offenses for exposing himself and masturbating on women at the Palisades Center mall in Rockland County, New York.⁷⁸⁹

As a registered sex offender, Mele was required to attend treatment sessions and report to a probation officer. In the month before Garza’s death he skipped three mandated sex-offender treatment meetings, and his counselors had warned him about his erratic behavior just hours before the killing.⁹ He had also moved from his parents’ home in Newburgh to the Wallkill apartment without telling his probation officer, a violation of his registration requirements.⁸

The Search for Laura Garza

Two days after Garza vanished, on December 5, 2008, Mele turned himself in to police.⁷ He was held on a probation violation for admitting to drinking alcohol, failing to attend sex-offender treatment, and failing to report to his probation officer.¹⁰ The surveillance video and his history made him the prime suspect, but prosecutors did not yet have enough evidence to charge him with Garza’s killing.¹¹

Officers observed a bite mark on Mele’s finger and scratches on his back in the days after Garza disappeared, and they noted that patches of carpet had been cut away in his apartment.⁶¹²¹³

On April 11, 2010, children riding ATVs found intact skeletal remains in a wooded field near Mount Cobb, outside Scranton, roughly 65 miles from Mele’s Wallkill apartment.¹³ A Michael Kors watch was recovered nearby and matched a watch Garza was wearing in a photograph.¹² On April 26, 2010, DNA testing confirmed the remains were hers.⁴ The remains were later cremated and returned to her family in McAllen.¹⁴

Indictment and Evidence From Mele’s Computer

On December 8, 2010, an Orange County grand jury returned an eight-count indictment charging Mele with two counts of second-degree murder, one count of first-degree manslaughter, one count of second-degree manslaughter, and four counts of tampering with physical evidence relating to Garza’s body, carpet from his apartment, and a car mat.¹⁵¹⁶

Investigators had also pulled an unfinished autobiography and journal entries from Mele’s computer that prosecutors described as an escalating pattern of sexual deviance. In the autobiography Mele traced his behavior to discovering the Playboy Channel as a child, writing that his “sexual switch went from off to on in a matter of seconds,” and compared his progression to building a tolerance: “Almost like drinking a few beers and getting buzzed to having to drink five or six to get buzzed.” He described buying a small camera to photograph women in public without their knowledge. In his journal he wrote that he was “personally happy I was caught” because “I could have ended up seriously hurting someone else or myself.”⁸ Investigators also recovered roughly 70 photographs of unsuspecting women taken from behind, along with video footage, from a vehicle Mele had reported stolen shortly before Garza went missing.⁹

Prosecutors argued that this material was necessary because their murder case was entirely circumstantial. A judge ruled it would be overly prejudicial and limited the prosecution at trial to mentioning only that Mele had a prior unspecified felony conviction.⁸

Plea Deal and Sentencing

On January 23, 2012, the day his murder trial was scheduled to begin, Mele pleaded guilty to manslaughter and tampering with evidence. Under the agreement with Orange County Judge Nicholas De Rosa, he received 23 years in prison for manslaughter and a concurrent sentence of 16 months to four years for evidence tampering.¹⁷ A murder conviction at trial could have carried 25 years to life. Defense attorney Craig Brown noted that with good behavior Mele could be released in under 20 years.¹⁸

Mele was formally sentenced on March 6, 2012, in Orange County Court in Goshen, New York, to 23 years in prison plus five years of post-release supervision.¹ He told the court he was “deeply and truly sorry for my actions and for my inaction in telling law enforcement what happened that night.”¹⁹

Judge De Rosa called the crime “depraved, disgusting, selfish and devastating” and described the sentence as “imperfect justice,” saying perfect justice would mean “at the instant you are sentenced you disappear and Laura Garza reappears and enjoys the rest of her life.” Orange County District Attorney Frank Phillips said Mele “is and will continue to be a threat to public safety” and that the sentence would remove that threat “for at least the next 20 years.”¹

Elizabeth Esquivel wept as she told the court, “I hear her alive next to me. I hear her voice saying ‘Mama.'” Garza’s brother Ivan addressed Mele directly: “The only thing that can make me feel better is that over the next 23 years one less evil person is out on the street.”¹⁹

1
NBC New York. Laura Garza Killer Michael Mele Sentenced
2
New York Post. Man Admits Killing Brooklyn Dancer After Meeting Her at Manhattan Club
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NBC New York. Remembering Laura
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CNN. Laura Garza Remains Identified
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Times Herald-Record. Investigators Hand Over Evidence
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NBC New York. Laura Garza Michael Mele Trial
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Times Herald-Record. Michael Mele Case Timeline
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New York Post. Predator’s Chilling Clues
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NBC New York. Laura Garza Killer Michael Mele
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ABC News. Police Search for Missing NYC Woman
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NBC New York. Prime Suspect in Laura Garza’s Death Will Be Indicted
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WABC-TV. Laura Garza Remains Found
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CBS New York. Prime Suspect in Death of Laura Garza To Be Indicted
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NBC New York. Laura Garza’s Remains
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Times Herald-Record. Michael Mele Indicted
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WABC-TV. Michael Mele Indicted in Laura Garza Case
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WABC-TV. Michael Mele Pleads Guilty
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ABC 7. Michael Mele Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter
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San Antonio Express-News. NY Sex Offender Gets 23 Years in McAllen Woman’s Death