A man who forced his girlfriend to walk through Harlem in the nude, on a cold January day, because she had allegedly been messaging with other men, has been given the maximum sentence.
A Manhattan judge sentenced 26-year-old Jasson Melo to 2 1/3 to seven years in prison on Wednesday – the maximum sentence that the prosecution had sought.
‘Jasson Melo’s view of women belongs to the Dark Ages,’ Justice Robert Mandelbaum said, according to the New York Daily News. ‘To him, women are property.’
Jasson Melo, 26 (pictured), was sentenced to 2 1/3 to seven years in prison on Wednesday by a Manhattan judge
The Harlem man (left and right) was convicted for making his girlfriend, the mother of his child, do a nude walk of shame on a cold January day in 2016
The 25-year-old victim, who is the mother of Melo’s child, testified during the trial. Mandelbaum said her words show she ‘remains scarred from the fear and humiliation, maybe forever.’
The victim was not in court for the sentencing, but wrote a letter that was read by prosecutor Caitlin Connolly.
She said that ‘the pain and emotions were and still are unexplainable and unimaginable’.
He claimed he forced her into the act as she had been messaging other men
Melo allegedly tried to profit off his twisted fame by trying to sell merchandise with quotes from the degrading footage
‘Mr. Melo destroyed me in so many ways, and didn’t stop as he would continuously taunt me as if his nightmare was his sick joke,’ she wrote.
Connolly called Melo ‘remorseless and laughing about his conduct’.
Melo’s attorney had argued for a lighter sentence, saying he was triggered emotionally by seeing a picture of another man’s penis on his girlfriend’s phone.
‘He didn’t handle it properly. There were lawful ways to deal with this matter,’ Herlich said. ‘But he didn’t do it for sport.’
Melo was previously offered plea deals that came without jail time, but he declined and decided to fight the charges – including coercion – at trial.
The incident in question happened in January 2016.
The ordeal lasted for several hours as Melo threatened to kill her after finding explicit texts from other men on her phone.
Melo also allegedly swung a heavy stone Buddha statue at her, as if he intended to bash her head in, while their two-month old daughter lay on the bed, just feet away.
He said, you know what, you’re gonna pay. You’re gonna get naked and you’re gonna go out on the street, and you’re gonna pay,’ she testified.
The woman, whose name has been withheld, said Melo ‘tortured’ her for two hours before he pushed her out into the cold and pulled out his cell phone to record her
The woman, who initially wore a towel in the video, was then forced to strip and walk around a Harlem street naked
In the footage which was posted to Instagram and LiveLeak, Melo could be seen following the woman wrapped in a bath towel, down the block while he berated her in Spanish.
In the two-minute clip which was seen by jurors on Monday, Melo was seen pulling the towel away forcing her to stand between two parked cars in an attempt to cover her modesty.
Melo says: ‘Take off your towel! Co-operate b***h. Show what you are, so pretty and so great. She’s a tart. Let’s go. Let’s go. Say hi to the camera and say why you’re doing this
‘Take off your towel and pay the price for the shame I feel after telling you how pretty you were and that I wanted to start a family with you, but it the meantime you were talking to seven other men.’
The woman retorts: ‘But not to have sex with them.’
He then rips the towel from her, leaving her completely naked in the street, apart from a pair of boots. As she tried to hide between parked cars, he continued to hurl insults at her.
‘Pay the price for your shame!’ he bellowed at her. ‘You’re going to pay the price for being a whore. Since you’re a whore, you’re going to pay like a whore.’
‘There, on the trash, exactly,’ he sneered as she stopped by some trashcans. ‘Pose with your trash.’
The woman eventually wrapped herself in a motorcycle cover while Melo continued to film.
Adding insult to injury, Melo later tried to sell merchandise based on the video, including t-shirts and hats bearing his quotes.
One flat-billed cap bore the phrase, ‘Let’s go, participa,’ which Melo says in the video
At the time of his arrest Melo defended his actions saying: ‘I didn’t hit her or anything. Even the detectives are here with me and some of them congratulated me because they see how happy she is and I didn’t pull her hair or anything.
‘Some of the other prisoners are also on my side and they say some of them would have done worse things.’