Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Rose Petal Murder Suspect Makes Bombshell Confession on the Stand

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

John Joey Mello, 64, was taken into custody and charged with two felonies in connection to the murder of Christina Parcell, the mother of his daughter. Mello's arrest came after his friend, Zachary Hughes, confessed to murdering Parcell on the stand at his murder trial. Hughes testified that Mello offered to pay him to murder Parcell but he declined the offer. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy details the twists in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lccrimefix and access information about almost anyone!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. John asked me that if I believed his daughter was in grave danger, would I be willing to kill Christina Parcell for $5,000? That testimony from Zachary Hughes at his trial leads to another arrest in the Rose Petal murder. Mr. Mello, you're being charged with solicitation to commit a felony, an accessory before the fact of murder. All unravel the connections and the twists in this bizarre and sad case out of the Palmetto State. Welcome to Crime Fix, I'm Anjanette Levy. The Rose Petal murder case

has taken a strange turn, but I'm not sure it's a completely unexpected one if you've been following along. But still, it's really been something to watch. Zachary Hughes, a classically trained pianist, is on trial in Greenville, South Carolina, accused of murdering Christina Parcell in October of 2021. And someone else could be going on trial in connection to Parcell's murder following an arrest, eventually. More on that shortly. Parcell was a veterinary tech who had a nine-year-old daughter. On October 13th, 2021, Parcell was found murdered in her home in Greenville County, South Carolina. She was stabbed more than 31 times. Rose petals were found at the crime scene. In

less than two weeks after Parcell's murder, Zachary Hughes was taken into custody and charged with murdering Parcell. Hughes was a friend of the father of Christina Parcell's daughter, John Mello, a local musician. Hughes' trial began last week, more than two years after Parcell's murder. So the question is, how did Zach Hughes become involved in this case? Well, Zach Hughes had a relationship with John Mello starting in about October of 2020, around the time when he left for Italy. And that relationship grew. And it grew to the point where Zach Hughes began inserting himself into this custody battle at the behest of John Mello.

And they began doing things like sending photos of her to the neighbors in an effort to shame her, in an effort to show that she's a bad mother. And as the custody dispute elevated, it elevated into a situation where custody might not go in John Mello's favor. And at that point, Zach Hughes made the ultimate decision. During the trial, a deputy described finding Parcell's body inside the home. We went in the back door. He said it was unlocked. They always leave it unlocked. So that's the way we made entry. Went inside, immediately, as soon as we got inside, immediately smelled some kind of chemical

odor. It was kind of unusual. We weren't 100% sure what it was, I could never figure it out, but we cleared the residence. I located Ms. Parcell in the living room. There was blood all over the floor. Little like there was drag marks on the floor where she was, uh, had been drugged by her feet or drug somehow. Uh, she had multiple lacerations around her upper, um, her face or neck area. The deputy encountered Bradley post parcels boyfriend who would later be charged with possessing child sex abuse materials that investigators found on his phone. What did you do when you walked inside the house?

It was dark, quiet. And so I walked back to, you know, down the hallway to see if she was in the bathroom or the shower. And it was all dark. And I looked on the floor and right at the entrance of the living room and off that hallway, there were petals from like a rose. And as I looked, I looked into the room and I saw her on her back. And when you saw her on her back, was there a lot of blood around the room? Yes. What did you do? I walked over and yelled at her and then

called 911. John Mello is accused of asking his friend to murder the mother of his child, even offering to pay him. So I thought I'd search him on truthfinder.com to see what might come up about John Mello. Truthfinder is a website that will show you a lot of information about someone from public records. I searched for Mello and found that his occupation as a lyricist appeared in the search results. So did his arrest for custodial interference, but it's important to note that the judge threw out that charge. Truthfinder is great because it will show you a person's phone numbers, past addresses, and criminal and traffic records.

If you want to try Truthfinder, I have a great deal for you. You can get 50% off of confidential background reports. Just log on to www.truthfinder.com slash lccrimefix. Log on and start accessing information about almost anyone. Post also testified about receiving envelopes in the mail that concerned him in June of 2021. And when about was it mailed to you? June 30th. Did you receive other envelopes as well? Yes. Okay. Tell this jury about how that happened. Be a little more specific. So tell us, you received an envelope.

What did you do once you received it and did you receive other envelopes? I received the envelope. I opened it because it was very suspicious with my return address. I looked at it and then I called my attorney. Why did you call your attorney? Because the contents inside. Can you explain, can you describe the contents? Yes, there were naked pictures of Ms. Parcell. And if I remember right, there was a mailing list of which would kind of indicate that they were

gonna be sent also to that, to those locations. I'll get back to those envelopes in a bit. The jury also heard testimony that Hughes' DNA was found under Christina Parcell's fingernails, and they heard about a trove of WhatsApp messages exchanged between Zach Hughes and his friend John Mello. How many messages were you able to review exchanged between Mr. Hughes and Mr. Mello, beginning with this message on October 7th of 2020? I believe it was maybe in excess of 1,000. It was a great deal. So when's the last message on WhatsApp to date between Mr. Mello and Mr. Hughes?

October the 13th, 2021. 1 tbsp. of garlic powder 1 tbsp. of salt 1 tbsp. of pepper 1 tbsp. of pepper 1 tbsp. of pepper 1 tbsp. of pepper 1 tbsp. of pepper 1 tbsp. of pepper 1 tbsp. of pepper 1 tbsp. of pepper

1 tbsp. of pepper 1 tbsp. of pepper 1 tbsp. of pepper 1 tbsp. of pepper Mr. Cunningham, in conducting your extraction of this cell phone, approximately how long did it take to crack Mr. Hughes' phone as to the password? Around two years in total from beginning to break that passcode to the point in which it did successfully break that passcode. One of those messages had Mello telling Hughes to harass Parcell, who was in the middle of a contentious

custody battle with Parcell over their daughter. Both Mello and Hughes faced charges related to harassing Parcell. Mello had been arrested and charged with custodial interference for taking their daughter to Italy to protect her from abuse. He claimed she was suffering at the hands of her mother. A judge dismissed the custodial interference charge. The defense didn't give an opening statement at the beginning of the trial. Sometimes that happens. Instead, the defense waited until the state rested to talk to the jury. Attorney Mark Moyer matter-of-factly told the jury that Zachary Hughes killed Christina Parcell. Listen to the testimony that you're about to hear in this case.

The why to the homicide is very important because it gives insight into the person's heart. In this case, you are going to hear that the why was not jealousy or greed or a crime of passion or some other emotion. You're gonna hear that Zach did not act like an angry heart like the prosecutor conjectured. You're gonna hear that this was not done for money or any other personal gain or benefit, not to help out any kind of friend. You're gonna hear that this was done for a just cause. And that's not malice,

and that's not murder. Not only did Moyer tell the jury that his client killed Christina Parcell, he told them they would hear about it directly from Zach Hughes. And Zach is going to testify because Zach has been waiting for this opportunity to tell a people, to tell a group of people like you what really happened, which is that he took the life of Christina Parcell. And crucially, he's been waiting and wanting to tell you why. Zach Hughes's attorney wanted to tell the jury that Hughes murdered Parcell to protect her daughter. But Judge Patrick Fantz said he couldn't allow that, but that didn't stop Zachary Hughes. And ultimately, did you take Christina Parcells' life on October the 13th?

Yes, because I believed it was absolutely necessary to say, and I was right. The objection, Your Honor, is sustained. I ask you to disregard the testimony that you just heard. Hughes said that John Mello confided in him about the custody battle with Christina Parcell and that what he heard reminded him of his adopted older sister, Grace, who he said was evil. He started describing Christina Parcell's character and her personality. And as he was going through various points, he kept saying, Zach, I know you're not going to believe me. Like, I know this sounds overblown and dramatic and you probably think i'm exaggerating and under other circumstances i would have because john does i mean he's a big storyteller and you know when people are talking about their exes like everyone thinks their ex is

the antichrist so of course i was sort of predisposed to be biased against what he was telling me, except for the fact that point by point, everything he described about Christina Parcell was exactly the same as my sister Grace. He told me that Christina Parcell was a master manipulator. He said she can lie at the drop of the hat and you'll never know it. He said she was incredibly charming. He said she was incredibly intelligent and talented. He used to say she was smarter than he was,

but that her biggest fault was that she was lazy and she had this arrogance combined with her laziness that was essentially born out of the fact that she knew she never really had to work too hard at anything in life and she could even sacrifice trust with people and tell them lies that could easily be found out because ultimately she was completely confident in her ability to reel someone back in no matter how bad she had burned them before. And he could have been describing Grace to me because I knew this behavior. I had lived through this behavior. Then Hughes said Mello asked him to murder Parcell. Did he make you another offer? Yes, he did. How long after the first offer did he make the second

offer? I'm not certain, but I would say maybe two or three weeks later. Tell this jury about that. He was becoming increasingly more worried and distressed about the safety of his daughter. I was as well. The more I learned about this situation and everything, and a lot more than what I've told you, I was also... What was the second offer?

The second offer, he asked me again, if I became convinced that his daughter was in danger, would I be willing to kill Christina Parcell for $10,000? What did you, or how did you respond to that offer? I told him, John, there's no amount of money that would ever tempt me to do something like this. And I told him I was insulted that he even thought that would be something I would consider. So I told him I would never do something like this for money.

I told him the only way I would ever consider taking action like this is if I was absolutely convinced that his daughter was not only in danger, but that the only way to rescue her from that danger would be to take Christina Parcell's wife. Despite declining the offer for money to kill Christina Parcell, Hughes said he eventually decided to kill Parcell on his own. He also said that Mello told him who would be at the home that day. I was still in the middle of this music project, so I had a lot on my plate there just professionally, and day. I was still in the middle of this music project. So I had a lot

on my plate there just professionally. And of course, I was continuing and even increasing my support to help John save his daughter. And since June, when I had returned, I had been absolutely convinced that Christina Purcell was sexually abusing her daughter. Now, despite the judge's earlier ruling, Hughes told the jurors about his belief that Parcell was molesting her daughter. Hughes explained how he carried out the murder. And when I rang the doorbell, the door opened and a woman came to the front. And I thought it was Christina Purcell, but I wanted to make sure.

And I also wanted to make sure that no one else was home. So I told her that while I was holding the box and the roses that I had a delivery for Lutina Purcell, her sister. And she told me that Lutina wasn't home. So at this point I realized that Christina was at the house alone. And I handed her the roses. And I took the revolver out of the box and I pointed it at her and I told her to be quiet and to go back into the house, which she did. And I followed her into the house and I shut the door. And I was experiencing such anxiety that my body wasn't really doing what I was telling it to do anymore.

When I realized that I couldn't use the gun, which was unloaded at this point, my plan had been to try to knock her unconscious because I didn't want to cause her or anyone any pain. That wasn't my intention. I just wanted to save her and to make sure that no one else who was a bystander would be involved in this or could be endangered in any way. So I tried, while she was holding the roses,

to strike her on the head and knock her unconscious. But my body was fighting me because even though I knew who she was and what she was doing and the danger that was put in. I was still looking at her, and I was seeing a sympathetic figure. I was seeing a woman, and I had always been taught never to hurt a woman, to always protect women and children.

So when I went to strike her with the gun, my hand didn't really do what I was trying to tell it to. I essentially pulled my strike. It felt like a time I had been cliff jumping with friends. I have a big fear of heights, and there was a 30-foot face that you could jump off and jump into a deep pool of water, and when I would run up to the edge, I would try to get a running start and jump off the edge, and I just couldn't. My body would stop me against my will, and I had to try to do this 10 or 15 or 20 times before I could actually get myself to go over the edge. So when I struck her on the head with the pistol, that's what happened. It didn't knock her unconscious and it...

I'd hardly struck her at all, to be honest. So I tried again and the same thing happened. I just couldn't bring myself to strike her. And at this point, she realized that I was hesitating. And she began to try to move herself and to get away and to fight back. And during this period of time, the roses had dropped and the petals and stems had scattered. And in the middle of Zach Hughes's testimony, sheriff's deputies took John Mello into custody, charging him with accessory before the fact and solicitation to commit a felony. Mello appeared in court Wednesday night.

All right. Are you Mr. Mello? Yes, sir. Mr. Mello, I'm Judge O'Brien. I'm going to read you your rights. You have the right to remain silent. You have the right and obligation to be present at your trial. If you fail to show up for your trial, they'll place failure to appear charges against you, and you could face an additional one to five years in jail. You have the right to a trial by jury. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one can be provided for you through the public

defender's office. If the charges that are placed on you are discharged, dismissed, not prosecuted, or if you're found not guilty, you have the right to have your record expunged or wiped clean from these charges. Now this video is from Fitz News. Judge O'Brien read the right to have your record expunged or wiped clean from these charges. Now this video is from Fitz News. Judge O'Brien read the charges to John Mello and ordered him back to jail. Do you understand so far, sir? Yes, sir. All right. Mr. Mello, you're being charged with solicitation to commit a felony and accessory before the fact of murder. These are both General Sessions charges which means you have an additional right, you have the right of a preliminary hearing. The preliminary

hearing is an evidence hearing where the state has to show that they have the evidence to take you to court. If you want that hearing, take the form I'm going to give you and fill it out. You can mail it or take it to the address on the form or you can fill it out tonight and give it back to me. But you only have a total of 10 days to get that form turned in. Otherwise, you lose your right to that hearing. Now, accessory before the fact to a felony is a violent crime in South Carolina. Based on the nature of these charges and the situation involved in these cases,

or excuse me, this case, I am going to no bond you and I'm going to send you to the circuit court for a bond hearing. Your next court date will be sometime in the next 30 days. I can't tell you if you'd be three days from now or 30 days from now because that'll have to be scheduled by the solicitor's office, but at that point in time it'll be up to them to decide as to whether to grant you a bond or to keep you in jail until your court date. Do you have any questions? I don't think so. Thank you. All right, sir. Sit tight right there. I've got some papers for you to sign.

Thank you. Also speaking at the bond hearing, Christina Parcell's sister, who brought Christina's ashes with her. She said she'd been waiting 1,224 days for Mello's arrest. You did this to your family. Your child has to know that you did this to her family. I don't know where I will be when you're a child, but I assure you, if I am at all capable, I will be there every day. When you are convicted, I will be there at every parole hearing. Everyone. You will never get rid of me. And that is your own fault.

You did this to yourself. So I have your honor. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Purcell. I appreciate you coming. Mr. Mello, do you have any questions before we end this? All right, sir. You're free to go with the officer. Thank you. Now back to the testimony at the trial. Remember those envelopes that Bradley Post had described? Guess who sent them? You guessed it, Zachary Hughes. Shortly after these mailers would have arrived, John described a call to me where he said Christina

was at the end of the call. She took the phone and turned it towards her face, which she usually did not do. And he said she was more angry than I've ever seen her. And he would often talk about how you would never see her angry, like she was very good at controlling her emotions and not showing if you had made her angry. And she took the phone and didn't say anything, but just slid her finger across her throat as if she was threatening that she was going to have him killed for what she believed he was doing. John Mello is being held in the Greenville County Detention Center without bail. He'll have a bail hearing in another court at a later date. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Janette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.