Wall Man Who Smothered His Baby Girl Gets 30-Year Term: Prosecutor

FREEHOLD, NJ – In what authorities called a "depraved" act, Austin Meli, 26, of Wall, was sentenced to 30 years in prison in the death of his six-week old baby girl, who was suffocated to keep her from crying.

Meli, already serving time for an aggravated assault on another of his children, was sentenced on Friday, Dec. 16, Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago said Monday.

Meli was sentenced before Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Joseph W. Oxley. The sentence is subject to the No Early Release Act, which requires Meli to serve 85 percent of it before he is eligible for parole.

This sentence will run consecutively to a sentence that Meli is already serving. He's in state prison for a 10-year sentence for aggravated assault on another of his children.

In the death of his infant girl, Meli pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated manslaughter on Feb. 10 of this year.

“The defendant’s depraved actions caused this horrific tragedy and left other family members
to mourn an immeasurable loss,” Santiago said in a news statement.

“While it is impossible to make this family whole, this plea deal and the subsequent sentence provides justice and closure for the victim’s family for such an unspeakable and heinous act.”

On March 9, 2019, the Wall Township Police Department responded to a home for a report of an unresponsive six-week-old infant.

It was determined that the infant had been in the immediate care of Meli, her father, at the time she was found to be unresponsive. She was taken to the hospital but was pronounced dead at Ocean Medical Center, Brick.

The investigation ultimately revealed that Meli had smothered the child in order to stop her from crying, resulting in the baby’s death by asphyxiation, according to the prosecutor's office.

Meli is currently serving a 10-year New Jersey State Prison sentence for second-degree aggravated assault, two counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, and fourth-degree tampering with physical evidence for crimes committed on another of his children. Meli’s sentence for those charges is also subject to an 85 percent period of parole ineligibility pursuant to the No Early Release Act.

According to an affidavit in the case, as reported by app.com in 2020, even after Meli's guilty plea in this matter, police kept the case open and received information in the infant girl's death when the baby's mother told Wall police she had recordings of conversations between her and Meli in which Meli admitted that he twice suffocated his daughter the day she died. Meli told her their daughter did not wake up after the second suffocation, according to the document.

The investigation was led by the Wall Township Police Department and the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.

The case was prosecuted by Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutors Ellyn Rajfer and Margaret Koping.

Meli is represented by Allison Friedman, Freehold.