Man Behind Violent Lake Forest Crime Spree Stabbing, Carjackings Pleads Guilty

LAKE FOREST, CA — A 33-year-old man pleaded guilty Wednesday and was sentenced to more than 16 years in prison for a crime spree in Lake Forest.

James Carlos Melendrez pleaded guilty to three counts of assaults with force likely to produce great bodily injury, two counts of attempted carjacking, four counts of assault with a deadly weapon, all felonies.

Subscribe

He was also charged with a misdemeanor count of battery and unlawful entry of a noncommercial dwelling, according to court records.

He also admitted sentencing enhancements for inflicting great bodily injury and premeditated murder.

Melendrez was sentenced to 16 years and four months in prison, with 3,174 days behind bars.

The crime spree started at around 5 p.m. on April 16, 2019 in Lake Forest.

Melendrez got into a fight near the Salvation Army store on Rockfield Boulevard before running into a residential complex on Ridge Route Drive and broke into an apartment.

While breaking into the apartment, he was confronted by a woman and woman inside and ran out of the unit, according to a previous Patch report.

From there, Melendrez ran across Rockfield into a residential neighborhood and smashed a window to a home on Danby Drive, where a mother and her two teenagers lived.

"He armed himself with a knife at that point," Orange County Sheriff's Department Carrie Braun said. "The woman attempted to lure him away from the teenagers by fleeing the house. He chased the mother down Danby Drive onto Mullin Road."

At that point, Melendrez caught up with the woman and stabbed her "multiple times."

The defendant then carjacked a vehicle "from an elderly male" and attempted to run down several pedestrians, hitting one woman who broke her leg, according to investigators.

After he crashed the stolen vehicle he attempted to break into a home and then turned to try to carjack two more vehicles, investigators said. He tried to pull a woman from one of the vehicles and told investigators he did it "because God was telling him to kill whoever he could today," according to sheriff's deputies.

City News Service contributed to this report.