An ex-con strangled and decapitated a man who impregnated his wife while he was in prison, authorities say.
The victim’s hands were also cut off – and one was later found in a mailbox by a 5-year-old boy.
Anthony Newton, 45, is now charged in the gruesome murder of Ulisy “Cesar” Molina, whose burned, dismembered body was found in a vacant lot outside Las Vegas in 2017 after his family reported him missing, according to KLAS.
Newton, his brother-in-law and another woman allegedly lured Molina to the woman’s apartment around Christmas 2016 and killed him over the affair, a Nevada judge heard in court last week.
“This relationship is known to people in Mr. Molina’s family, and it is not exactly a secret,” said Newton’s attorney Pam Weckerly.
In a bizarre, creepy twist, one of Molina’s severed hands was found in a mailbox by a five-year-old child nearly two years later — though it’s unclear how the hand got there and whether the family that owned the mailbox is connected to Molina .
Molina’s head and other hand were never found.
“We can’t answer for you how that hand ended up in that lady’s mailbox,” Weckerly said.
Newton now faces the death penalty in a new trial after a judge threw out the original case in November when a co-defendant revealed Newton’s previous prison sentence to jurors.
Newton’s wife, Jami Malaperdas, had an affair with Molina in 2015 while Newton was behind bars. It is not clear what crime Newton committed that landed him in prison.
Malaperdas became pregnant and later had an abortion, the defense said.
Newton’s trial is expected to last about three weeks.
