A 33-year-old man pleaded guilty this week and was sentenced to more than 16 years in prison for a series of crimes in Lake Forest that included stabbing a woman and attempted carjackings.
James Carlos Melendrez pleaded guilty on Wednesday, Nov. 5 to three counts of attempted murder, a count of burglary, a count of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, two counts of attempted carjacking, four counts of assault with a deadly weapon — all felonies — as well as misdemeanor counts of battery and unlawful entry of a noncommercial dwelling.
Melendrez had about 3,175 days of credit behind bars.
The crimes began about 5 p.m. on April 16, 2019: Melendrez got into a fight near the Salvation Army store on Rockfield Boulevard, then ran into a residential complex on Ridge Route Drive and broke into an apartment.
He was confronted by a man and a woman inside and ran out of the unit, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
Melendrez then ran across Rockfield and broke into a home on Danby Drive occupied by a woman in her 40s and two teenagers.
Melendrez grabbed a butcher knife from the kitchen and chased the woman along her street and stabbed her multiple times, authorities said in court.
He then carjacked a vehicle “from an elderly male” and attempted to run down several pedestrians, hitting one woman who broke her leg, according to investigators.
After he crashed, he tried to break into a home and then turned to try to carjack two more vehicles, investigators said. He tried to pull a woman from one of the vehicles and told investigators he did it “because God was telling him to kill whoever he could today,” according to sheriff’s deputies.