A South Carolina man who provided detailed testimony of how he brutally stabbed his friend’s ex-wife 35 times was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison despite his claims the killing was justified because a child was in danger.
Zachary Hughes’ testimony this week not only led to his conviction but gave authorities enough evidence to arrest and charge his friend before Hughes even left the witness stand Wednesday. His friend, John Mello, could also face life imprisonment.
“I’ve never had a defendant get on the stand with the kind of attitude, ego, cold-faced sternness and explain a brutal murder in the way he did. It shook me a little bit,” prosecutor Walt Wilkins said after the trial.
The body of 41-year-old Christina Parcell was found in a Greenville County home in 2021. Her jugular vein and carotid artery had been slashed. The rose petals strewn on the floor where Parcell’s body was found play an integral role in Hughes’ murder ploy. He held the flowers as a ruse to get Parcell to answer her door.
The case also involved revenge porn against Parcell and allegations that she and her new fiancé sexually abused the child she had with her ex-husband.
Those allegations are why Hughes said he killed Parcell, but Circuit Court Judge Patrick Fant III ruled the defense could not bring them up because they were irrelevant to the killing.
Hughes, 32, repeatedly defied Fant’s ruling including telling jurors of the relief he felt after killing Parcell.
“I knew from that moment on (the girl) would be safe. (The girl) would be safe from the sexual abuse that her mother was perpetrating on her. And there is proof to that that the state is hiding from you,” Hughes said turning toward the jury.
Fant immediately halted testimony and sentenced Hughes to six months in jail for contempt of court.
Parcell’s fiancé, Bradley Post, 68, is awaiting trial on child sexual abuse charges. Investigators have not given details about the victims in those cases, but civil lawsuits against Parcell’s estate say her daughter was a victim.
As Hughes testified, police arrested Mello — Parcell’s ex-husband and father of the child Hughes said he was protecting — and charged him as an accessory before the fact of murder and for solicitation of a felony. Mello has been jailed without bond.
Hughes told jurors that Mello offered him $5,000 and then increased it to $10,000 to kill his ex-wife, but Hughes refused the money only deciding to kill Parcell after he was convinced the child was in danger.
Mello also let him know where his ex-wife would be and when she would be alone, Hughes testified.
Mello, 64, said nothing about the case at a bond hearing Wednesday and did not have a lawyer.
Hughes was a classical pianist who trained at The Juilliard School. He met Mello in 2020 and they became friends as Hughes played music in public during the COVID-19 pandemic, about a year before the killing.
Mello was determined to get full custody of his daughter and the two started harassing Parcell, sending her nude photos to her neighbors and job, authorities said.
On the stand, Hughes detailed his ploy to murder Parcell, which included riding a bicycle to her home on a route he mapped to avoid traffic cameras and posing as a delivery florist with roses when he rang the doorbell. Hughes also described how he stabbed and slashed Parcell after he was scared shooting her would make too much noise.
“You rarely have a defendant get on the stand and detail such a heinous crime and a justification that makes no sense,” prosecutor Wilkins said.
Lawyers for Hughes said they will appeal the verdict and the judge’s decision not to allow them to present evidence of the alleged sexual abuse.
Tina Parcell asked the judge for a life sentence, saying Hughes was offered her sister as “a target on a silver platter” and that her sister was terrorized by everyone involved in the case.
“All these men did nothing but use my sister,” she said. “All of them used her for their own twisted personal gratification.”
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