Georgios Boultadakis, former Oyster Bay worker charged with asphyxiation, 'prayed for forgiveness' while holding domestic partner in chokehold, prosecutor says

A Suffolk County prosecutor Wednesday described how months after Georgios Boultadakis and John Melnikoff Jr. were united in a public bonding ceremony held in a local park, Boultadakis, allegedly hit his partner in the neck, then prayed for forgiveness as he held him in a four-minute chokehold.

The one-time Town of Oyster Bay Parks Department worker of East Meadow, charged with the Aug. 8, 2022, asphyxiation killing of his domestic partner, was indicted for murder in the second degree and denied bail at a Suffolk County Court hearing.

After Melnikoff’s death, Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Dena Rizopoulos said, Boultadakis said he could make a "fresh start." Boultadakis, 25, who has pleaded not guilty, faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted of the killing.

But a lawyer for Boultadakis presented a starkly different account during the hearing, arguing that his client had been fighting for his own life. "The victim in this case threatened to kill my client, threatened to kill his family, came at him with a knife," said defense lawyer William Keahon. "The two of them went to the ground. My client was trying to prevent himself from being killed." Boultadakis weighed some 70 pounds less than Melnikoff, 40, Keahon said.

Judge Timothy Mazzei ordered the two sides to return for an April 16 conference, rejecting Keahon’s request for $500,000 cash bail and GPS monitoring. Keahon patted Boultadakis on the back and whispered inaudibly to him. Court officers led Boultadakis, handcuffed and wearing a green jail jumpsuit, from the courtroom.

In a brief interview outside the courtroom, Keahon said evidence in the case — which came from prosecutors, he noted — pointed to "justification of self-defense." Of his client, he said: "I totally believe in him. I’m going to fight for him."

Rizopoulos declined to comment, but in a statement, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said the indictment "charges the tragic and brutal murder of a domestic partner ... We are committed to ensuring that the victim’s voice is heard, standing firm against domestic violence and advocating for the safety of all citizens."

Sparring over bail conditions before Mazzei ruled, Keahon said Boultadakis, 23 at the time of Melnikoff’s death, had worked steadily since his teens and had no prior contact with the criminal justice system. Prosecutors, he said, had offered "evidence of nothing and proof of nothing."

But Rizopoulos said Boultadakis was a liar who had changed his story multiple times, at first calling 911 to report that he’d found Melnikoff unconscious at the bottom of the stairs in the basement of a home they shared on Horton Drive in Huntington Station and taking instructions from the 911 operator on how to perform CPR.

Newsday has reported that Boultadakis later told police that Melnikoff was armed with a knife and a bottle of moonshine, and had threatened to harm his parents and said he would send sexually explicit images of him to his friends. Rizopoulos said in court Wednesday that there was "no evidence" that Melnikoff had ever pulled a knife, she said.