Son convicted in bludgeoning of parents with hammer gets 30 years, Louisiana officials say
A Louisiana man convicted of trying to kill his parents in a bloody hammer attack is headed to prison, officials say.
A judge ordered Rudy Melerine, 38, to serve “30 years at hard labor, without benefit of probation, parole, and suspension of sentence,” after he was accused of the attempted murders of his mother and father in 2017, 22nd Judicial District Attorney Warren Montgomery’s office announced in a Feb. 17 news release .
Melerine, who’s from Folsom, was previously found guilty on two counts of first-degree attempted murder in October 2021, WVLA reported.
St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived to the home on the morning of June 20, 2017, to find Melerine’s mother bloodied and beaten in the driveway with injuries to her hands and face, according to the district attorney’s office.
His father was found laying “in a pool of his own blood, with Melerine crouching over his body,” authorities said. His father was face down on the floor, struggling to reach the hammer he had wrestled from his son’s hands.
“Officers observed blood across the room on the floor, bed and walls and covering the victim and the defendant,” according to the release. A deputy who responded to the home “later testified that it was the ‘bloodiest scene he’d ever seen.’ “
Melerine was arrested, WVLA reported. His parents survived the attack and were treated at a hospital.
Folsom is about 50 miles north of New Orleans.
This story was originally published February 18, 2022 at 4:19 PM.