Homeless Man Sentenced To 45-To-Life After Hempstead Apartment Murder Conviction: DA

MINEOLA, NY — A 39-year-old homeless man was sentenced to 45 years to life in prison Monday after being convicted of murder and other charges in connection with a pair of stabbings that took place in 2023, prosecutors said.

Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly’s office said Monday that 39-year-old Melbis Hernandez had been convicted of second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder and first-degree attempted assault in connection with a pair of stabbings.

According to prosecutors, the murder charge stems from an Oct. 21, 2023 incident in which Hernandez encountered 53-year-old Marlon Rivas Aguilar in a stairwell at 45 Jackson Street in Hempstead at about 2:36 a.m.

Prosecutors said Hernandez stabbed Rivas Aguilar in the back three times, and that the 53-year-old was found lying in the stairwell doorway three hours later. He was pronounced dead at the scene, prosecutors said.

As for Hernandez, prosecutors said he left the building and dropped the kitchen knife used in the stabbing down a nearby sewer. Prosecutors said they found the knife with Rivas Aguilar’s DNA on it, and found Hernandez’s DNA on a sprite can that had been left on a windowsill near Rivas Aguilar’s body.

About three weeks prior to that incident, Hernandez had stabbed his girlfriend’s 49-year-old stepfather in the chest, prosecutors said. According to prosecutors, Hernandez waited in a parking lot — outside the same apartment building in Hempstead — for the man to come home from work.

At about 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 28, 2023, the 49-year-old got out of his car and Hernandez approached him and stabbed him in the chest, prosecutors said. At that point, prosecutors said the man ran away from Hernandez, in the direction of a nearby police car. Prosecutors said the man’s running toward a police car “caused Hernandez to stop giving chase.”

The 49-year-old man was taken to NYU-Langone hospital and treated for his injuries.

Hernandez was arrested about two weeks after the second stabbing, on Nov. 5, 2023, prosecutors said.

“In less than a month, this defendant committed two horrific stabbings,” Donnelly said. “First, Melbis Hernandez tried to kill his girlfriend’s stepfather in an act of revenge after the victim kicked him out of his apartment where Hernandez had been staying. The defendant lay in wait for the victim to return home from work before stabbing him in an ambush attack. Three weeks later, Hernandez returned to that very same apartment complex and took Marlon Rivas Aguilar’s life in a random, brutal act of violence. My prosecutors worked tirelessly to bring justice to the victims and their families, and today’s sentence ensures a dangerous criminal is off our streets potentially for the rest of his life.”