An Alabama woman who told her lover she was ready to “watch you die” then drove him over with her car will spend the rest of her life in prison.
Angelica Quintana, 31, was sentenced on Tuesday after a jury found her guilty in February, three years after being charged with murdering her lover and the father of her three children, Dennis Melton.
In February 2022, police reacted to complaints of a person being hit by a vehicle on Interstate 59/20 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. What they thought was an accident was actually an intentional conduct by the car’s driver, Quintana.
Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) state troopers discovered Melton beneath Quintana’s car when they arrived on Feb. 8, 2022. Melton was transported to the hospital, but died shortly after arriving.
Witnesses said at the trial that they saw Quintana’s car parked in an emergency lane on the left side of the road as Melton walked on the right, according to WBRC, a local Fox affiliate. Quintana turned her car towards Melton, drove across three lanes of traffic, and purposely struck him from behind.
But Quintana, according to the witnesses, was not finished yet.
WBRC stated that witnesses witnessed Quintana run over Melton and drag him across the pavement. The orange safety vest he was wearing at the time caused an orange streak on the highway. An eyewitness gave the jury a video of Melton pinned under the car, breathing his dying breaths, while Quintana stood by and did nothing to aid him.
About 10 witnesses, including Melton’s sister, reportedly testified that at one point they heard Quintana say to Melton, “If you get out of the car, I am going to watch you die.”
Quintana was convicted by a jury on February 14. On Tuesday, Judge Daniel Pruet handed her a life sentence. According to the Demopolis Times, a local news outlet present in the courtroom, Paula Whitney, chief assistant district attorney for the Sixth Circuit District of Alabama, stated after the sentencing that Quintana “never called 911” and “showed no remorse” during trial, adding, “I believe the judge took that into account when he delivered his verdict.”