Given that that two other men in the area have been charged with 1st-degree murder in relation to the death of their spouses, police seem to be at least temporarily alert to the issues here.
And get this. Daddy--who is called a "control freak" by HIS OWN LAWYER--has a pregnant girlfriend, and yet he worries about Mom being unfaithful! What an @$$hole. Yet the Judge is just eating up Dad's sob story about how he was the son of an abusive alcoholic. Cry me a river.
After the 4 months in jail, Daddy gets the usual anger management classes and mental health treatment, yada yada. All the stuff that does exactly nothing to impress anything on this "control freak" and all the stuff that does exactly nothing to provide security for this mom and her children. Very disappointing.
http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/city/article/1056776
Jailed for threats to wife, kids
Published Tuesday May 18th, 2010
BRUCE BARTLETT
Telegraph-Journal
SAINT JOHN - A man who threatened to kill himself and his wife to make their children orphans has been sentenced to four months in jail.
Michael Wayne Melvin, 37, had been locked up for the past month awaiting sentence after making the threats by phone on April 14 and getting into his car, to head east toward where his wife lives.
Police were alerted by both Melvin's west side neighbour, who heard him outside on his cellphone making the threats, and by Melanie Melvin, who recorded the conversation and immediately called police.
"With everything that is going on in this city we can't make light of mental health issues," prosecutor Lucie Ring told provincial court Judge Andrew LeMesurier.
In the past week police in Saint John and Moncton have charged two men with first-degree murder in relation to the deaths of their spouses.
"I feel unsafe at home, I feel that no matter how many precautions I take my life is still in danger," Melanie Melvin said in her victim impact statement, which she read to the court.
"I married Mike and we have two beautiful children and I know more than anyone what he is capable of doing both negative and positive, and that's why I am so afraid," she said, breaking down in sobs.
She locks her doors and has to go around double checking to make sure they are locked. The fear she is under is interfering with her ability to parent her two young children and she has fallen behind at her workplace, she said.
The victim's father, Richard Patterson, also read his victim impact statement, saying how hard it is to see his daughter living in fear and feel helpless to do anything about it.
"I feel this was a genuine threat towards my daughter and my personal fear is that I will someday receive a phone call that my daughter is dead," he said.
Melvin was arrested last month on Highway 1 just past the Rothesay Avenue exit. He said he was on his way to Miramichi, where he has a girlfriend who is expecting his child. No weapon was found in the car, but there was also no sign of an overnight bag.
Melvin's lawyer, Rod Macdonald, said his client admits to being somewhat of a control freak, who was obsessing over the idea that his wife had been unfaithful when he made the phone call.
"He told me it was a closure thing and that he is now ready to move on," Macdonald said.
The judge noted Melvin had a difficult childhood because his father was an abusive alcoholic who committed suicide when his son was eight.
Melvin was in foster care until he was 14, but had made a success of himself in business until the recent economic downturn.
As well as sending him back to jail, the judge also placed Melvin on probation for two years. He is to have no contact with his wife and children and is prohibited him from owning weapons for three years.
He must also take any anger management and mental health treatment recommended by his probation officer.
