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After three hours of deliberations, a South Carolina jury voted unanimously to convict 32-year-old Zachary David Hughes of the savage, ritualistic ‘Rose Petal Murder’ of 41-year-old veterinary technician Christina Parcell on October 13, 2021.
Jurors also found the Juilliard-educated concert pianist guilty of second degree harassment of Parcell in the months leading up to her slaying – which was perpetrated by Hughes with the willing encouragement of Parcell’s former boyfriend, 64-year-old Greenville, S.C. music producer John Mello.
Mello – who was in Italy at the time of the murder – communicated extensively with Hughes in the weeks leading up to the killing, allegedly providing him with information which enabled him to make sure Parcell was alone at her sister’s suburban home in Greer, S.C. at the time of the brutal slaying. Mello and Hughes used the encrypted smartphone application WhatsApp to communicate with each other – exchanging at least 1,769 encrypted messages.
All communication ceased on the day of the murder, however.
“How did the music research go?” Mello wrote to Hughes just moments after the killing.
“Good,” Hughes responded. “I’ll tell you over the phone.”
On the charges of which he was convicted, Hughes was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole by S.C. circuit court judge Patrick C. Fant III. After spending the last three-and-a-half years at the Greenville County detention center, he will be remanded to the custody of the S.C. Department of Corrections (SCDC). Like all new inmates, he will be transferred to Kirkland Correctional Institution – an SCDC intake center located just north of Columbia, S.C. After a month of medical, mental health and other assessments, he will receive a placement within the SCDC system.
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Zachary Hughes was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Christina Parcell by Judge Patrick Fant.
— FITSNews (@fitsnews) February 21, 2025
He will serve shorter concurrent and time-severed sentences for his other lesser convictions. pic.twitter.com/MqphYX58wF
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In addition to the guilty verdicts, Hughes also received a six-month contempt sentence after he repeatedly disobeyed instructions from Fant not to discuss allegations of child sex abuse material (CSAM or “child porn”) found at the residence and linked to the victim’s fiancée, Bradly Post.
And (in fairness to Hughes) linked to the victim…
Fant’s decision to keep this evidence and testimony out of the trial will doubtless be examined upon appeal – as nearly half of this high-profile proceeding involved testimony proffered to the court by Hughes’ lawyers, Mark Moyer and Andrew Moorman, related to the child porn.
Expect this proffered testimony to figure prominently in Hughes’ appeal – which will revolve around whether Fant was correct in his determination that this evidence was more “prejudicial” than “probative.”
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After almost two weeks of riveting testimony – including Hughes’ shocking admission that he committed the killing (but did not believe it was a crime) – prosecutors and Hughes’ defense attorneys delivered their closing arguments to jurors on Thursday morning (February 20, 2025) following a brief cross examination of the defendant by S.C. thirteenth circuit solicitor Walt Wilkins.
The previous day, Hughes dramatically took the stand to testify that his grave concern for the safety of Parcell’s child – whom she conceived with Mello – implanted a belief in his mind that the only way to protect the girl was to murder Parcell.
With Mello feeding him information – not all of it accurate – Hughes’ anger against Parcell boiled over. In describing why he felt he had to kill Parcell to protect the young girl, Hughes on several occasions referenced the alleged “sexual abuse” she endured.
Prosecutors objected, but the jurors heard the testimony regardless.
“As I left the house, I felt the most enormous wave of relief wash over me because I knew from that moment on (the child) would be safe,” Hughes testified. “(The child) would be safe from the sexual abuse that her mother was perpetrating on her and there is proof to that. The state is hiding that from you.”
Mello, incidentally, was arrested on Wednesday (February 19, 2025) after Hughes testified that he twice offered him money to kill Parcell – $5,000 the first time and $10,000 the second. He has been charged with accessory before the fact to a felony and solicitation to commit a felony. Mello is also facing harassment and conspiracy charges related to the mailings he and Hughes conspired to send Parcell and others in the weeks leading up to her murder.
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As for Bradly Post – a key witness for the state – he has been charged with five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor in the first degree, one count of sexual exploitation of a minor in the third degree, one count of third degree criminal sexual content with a minor and one count of buggery related to the material found at the murder scene. His case will be prosecuted by the office of S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson.
With Hughes providing what many believed to be compelling testimony – which the jury was told to disregard but clearly heard on multiple occasions – there was considerable speculation as to how solicitor Wilkins was going to handle his cross-examination of the defendant.
The answer was as unexpected as the rest of the trial… Wilkins kept it brief. In fact, after showing the jurors one of the photos of Parcell’s body laying on the floor of her sister’s suburban home, Wilkins asked Hughes just one question.
“Mr. Hughes, when you dragged Christina Parcell across the floor of the front room where you killed her, did you drag her by her arm or by her ankle?” he asked.
“I don’t remember for certain, but I think by the ankle,” he responded.
The defense told the court they had no rebuttal questions and rested their case — calling no additional witnesses.
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THE STATE’S CLOSING ARGUMENT…
Wilkins delivered an emotional closing argument focusing heavily on the brutality of Parcell’s death. After telling the jury this was a very unique case in that the defendant (Hughes) testified and admitted to the crime, Wilkins said the state had proved it was murder “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
“Zack Hughes is a cold-blooded killer,” Wilkins told jurors. “Zach Hughes is an admitted cold-blooded killer.”
Reiterating the background of the case for the jury, Wilkins noted things began to escalate after Parcell returned home from Italy in 2020 with her daughter. At that point, Mello and Hughes began planning the harassing mailings eventually sent to Parcell and others.
“He’s (Mello) doing it to make her look bad, but also to gain an advantage in his custody dispute,” Wilkins said.
He then reminded the jury of the testimony of Vanessa Kormylo, who served as the guardian ad litem for Mello and Parcell’s daughter.
“John Mello would do horrific things in relation to this custody battle,” Wilkins said. “While the defense wants to impugn the integrity of Christina Parcell to justify the murder, then so be it… but if doing bad things makes that okay, then I’d be out of a job.”
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“These are allegations that John Mello is making – he’s looking for dirt against Christina Parcell,” Wilkins added. “They are all allegations.”
Wilkins then apologized to the jury for having to hear Hughes testify about the murder.
“Only a person who has a severely demented sense of heroism with a heart as cold as ice could portray that,” Wilkins said. “He said, ‘I felt pity for her.’ He felt pity for Christina Parcell? How was that even possible? He treated her like an elderly dog that was sent to the vet to be euthanized, it doesn’t get any meaner than that.”
Wilkins showed the jury the Ring camera footage showing Hughes approaching Parcell’s front door, used the roses to gain a strategic advantage to enter the home and then said the pianist “begins to stab and stab and slash.”
“Can you imagine how soaked in blood his clothes were?” Wilkins said.
At the end of his closing, Wilkins slowed his pace.
“The evidence is absolutely overwhelming,” he said. “I’m going to ask you to go back there and deliberate. I’m going to ask you to find Zack Hughes guilty.”
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THE DEFENSE…
Moorman delivered the closing argument on behalf of the defense.
“Yesterday, Zack Hughes told you he killed Christina Parcell, but in doing that Zack did not confess to committing a crime.” Moorman said.
“The heart of this case is the intent,” Moorman continued. “It’s the mens rea. What have they proven about Zack’s intent? What has the state been able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt about what was in his heart and in his mind?”
The defense’s case seemed to receive a boost when jurors sent the first of three notes to the judge during their deliberations.
“Define malice,” they asked. “Is malice required for a murder charge?”
Ultimately, jurors determined Hughes did act with malice – i.e. the expressed or implied intent to kill – and rendered a verdict accordingly.
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BACKGROUND…
The body of Christina Parcell was discovered shortly after 11:00 a.m. EST on October 13, 2021 in the front living room of a suburban home owned by her sister, Lutina Parcell. She was found there, unresponsive, by her fiancée, Bradly Post. According to Post, he placed multiple calls to Parcell on the morning of her murder – calls which went unanswered. When he drove to the home to check on her, he found her savagely slain.
“I looked on the floor and right at the entrance of the living room and off that hallway there were, uh, petals from like a rose and as I looked I looked into the room and I saw her on her back,” Post testified.
Greenville County sheriff Hobart Lewis confirmed Parcell had been “brutally stabbed multiple times” and “murdered in a very violent way.”
As we exclusively reported at the time, the killer sprinkled rose petals – or deadheaded roses – around Parcell’s body after dragging (and posing) her in the front living room of the 2,100-square foot home owned by her sister
“Rose petals were sprinkled around her body,” a source familiar with the killing told this news outlet. “She was dragged – there were drag marks. The scene was staged.”
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Officially, Parcell’s cause of death was recorded by the Greenville county coroner as a homicide due to “multiple sharp force injuries.” According to forensic pathologist Claire Rose, “there were thirty-five sharp force injuries to Ms. Parcell,” including 27 to the head and neck area. Among those wounds were six separate stab wounds to the right side of Parcell’s neck – wounds which perforated both her right carotid artery and her right jugular vein.
Hughes was arrested on November 3, 2021 by GCSO deputies and charged with Parcell’s murder. The arrest shocked the Upstate seeing as he had no known connection to Parcell at the time.
At the time of her murder, Parcell was involved in an extremely contentious custody battle with 64-year-old John Mello – her ex-boyfriend and the father of her young daughter. Mello and Hughes were “very close friends,” Wilkins has claimed, and the two reportedly used the encrypted smartphone application WhatsApp to communicate with each other.
In fact, Mello and Hughes are said to have exchanged at least 1,769 encrypted WhatsApp messages.
In September of 2023, Hughes and Mello were charged with first degree harassment and conspiracy for allegedly disseminating nude photos of Parcell to an undisclosed group of recipients. Those charges are still pending.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Jenn Wood is FITSNews’ incomparable research director. She’s also the producer of the FITSFiles and Cheer Incorporated podcasts and leading expert on all things Murdaugh/ South Carolina justice. A former private investigator with a criminal justice degree, evildoers beware, Jenn Wood is far from your average journalist! A deep dive researcher with a passion for truth and a heart for victims, this mom of two is pretty much a superhero in FITSNews country. Did we mention she’s married to a rocket scientist? (Lucky guy!) Got a story idea or a tip for Jenn? Email her at jenn@fitsnews.com.
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6 comments
Just WOW!!! About a lot of things … will need to ponder before further comment.
Dumbest defense ever! In addition to the time he’s now going to serve, he ought to get a bill for court costs for making the trial necessary.
It was the right outcome. I hope Mello and Post end up in prison for their entire lives also. The are also scum. Thanks Jenn and Dylan for staying with this case from the beginning.
Well, I am not from SC but know the territory from Army days & native comrades. Seemed plausible that if the child abuse stuff was fully introduced a jury just might let him walk or plea to a lesser charge. Basically she deserved and so did Post defense But Abuse stuff wasn’t fully introduced so that theory wasn’t really tested… and the judge restricted it which was not surprising and probably correct legally. There is an appeal coming plus a Mello trial so much drama yet to come…
Wow, you’re saying she deserved to die based on ALLEGATIONS from a psychopath and from a crazy ex who would do anything to get custody of his child?? Mello didn’t even get custody of the daughter after the murder so that should tell you a little bit about his character.
According to legal documents filed by two separate alleged abuse victims of Post and Parcell, police discovered thousands of images of CSAM on both Parcell and Post’s devices. It’s not crazy allegations, the police have already found evidence. Christina can no longer harm another child. The judge kept the evidence out. I’m sure there will be an appeal.