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Left: Jose Melo and his fiancee Naket Jadix Trinidad Maldonado (Facebook). Center: Jose Melo (New Jersey Sex Offender’s Registry). Right: Jose Melo proposing to Naket Jadix Trinidad Maldonado (Facebook).
A New Jersey sex offender asked his girlfriend to marry him at a club, gushed about the proposal online — posting a video of it to Facebook with the caption, “I love you baby” — before stabbing his new fiancee to death a day later, cops say.
Jose Melo, 52, allegedly murdered Naket Jadix Trinidad Maldonado, 31, last Monday, Dec. 30, at a residence in Elizabeth, according to the Union County Prosecutor’s Office. Her death was reported the morning after Melo publicly proposed to Trinidad Maldonado at a local club. Footage of the proposal was posted on his Facebook page last Sunday night, Dec. 29, which shows the couple embracing and kissing after Trinidad Maldonado says yes.
“At approximately 9:12 a.m. on Monday, December 30, 2024, Elizabeth Police Officers responded to a residence on Florida Street in response to a report of a stabbing,” the prosecutor’s office said in a Jan. 2 press release. “Upon their arrival they located [Trinidad Maldonado] … who was found dead at the scene.”
A GoFundMe page launched by Trinidad Maldonado’s aunt, Yolanda De, describes her as a mother of two who was known as “Naky” to family and friends.
“Naky was senselessly taken from us on December 30 in an act of evil,” the GoFundMe description says. “This horrible act by someone she trusted left her two children without either parent and with very little options for their future. She has no family here in NJ and her family in Florida is doing all they can. I am all she has here in NJ and am doing the best I can to handle her affairs here as well as any funeral or memorial services here in NJ as well.”
Melo, who is a convicted sex offender, has been charged with one count of first-degree murder, one count of third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and one count of fourth-degree unlawful possession of a weapon.
Trinidad Maldonado, who is from Puerto Rico, will be buried there after funerals are held for her in Florida and New Jersey, according to her aunt. Her children are being taken care of by “family and permanent arrangements are being worked out,” the GoFundMe says.
“I am also doing all I can to ensure her young daughters are safe and have the things they need,” De wrote in the description. “My heart breaks as I share the news.”
Police have not yet released a motive in connection to Trinidad Maldonado’s death.
The New Jersey Sex Offender’s Registry lists Melo as being convicted in 2010 of aggravated criminal sexual contact after he “threatened a female with a box cutter and sexually assaulted her.”
The ex-con is described as a “Tier 2” offender who is considered to be a “moderate risk.”