PORTSMOUTH- Convicted murderer Austin Burke appeared in Scioto County Court of Common Pleas Friday to be arraigned on charges connected to the 2023 death of Ruben Melendez, a fellow inmate at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.

Burke has pleaded not guilty in the case. He stands accused of stomping Melendez during a fight in the cell block they both inhabited at SOCF. Melendez sustained head trauma and was reportedly pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Friday’s arraignment involved a superseding indictment, which replaces a preceding indictment. Such indictments often add or supplement charges or make corrections to the initial charges, according to Scioto County Prosecutor Shane Tieman.

“We work with our partners at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility and the highway patrol to vigorously prosecute individuals who continue to engage in criminal behavior while incarcerated,” Tieman said. “This is a very serious matter and will be treated in a like manner.”

According to the indictment, Burke, 25, formerly of Trumbull County, is charged with one count of aggravated murder, two counts of murder, and one count of felonious assault in the Aug. 12, 2023, death of Melendez, 65.

Burke is already serving a life sentence for the 2017 murder of Kenneth “Brandon” Sample in Trumbull County. He was also convicted of burglary for a 2017 armed robbery of a pizza restaurant, which added 17 years to that sentence. According to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, the soonest Burke would have been eligible for parole in that case was March 15, 2075.

Burke is currently set for a final pretrial on Friday, June 28, and a two-day jury trial to begin Monday, July 22.

Melendez had been serving a life sentence for a 1976 murder in Maricopa County, Arizona, according to the Arizona Department of Corrections Rehabilitation and Reentry database. In 1994, he was sentenced to 17 more years for second-degree murder in the 1987 stabbing death of a fellow inmate at the Arizona State Prison in Tucson.

Assistant Prosecutor Joseph Hale is working the case for the prosecutor’s office and often handles cases that emerge from incidents at SOCF. Local attorney Aaron Triplett has been assigned by the court as Burke’s counsel.

Reach Lori McNelly at [email protected] or at (740) 353-3101 ext. 1928. © 2024 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved