Inset: Melvin Becenti (San Juan County Adult Detention Center). Background: A section of the 2400 block of East 20th Street in Farmington, N.M. (Google Maps).
A man in New Mexico is accused of beating and strangling his girlfriend to death after declaring on video, "You are going to die tonight."
Melvin Becenti, 34, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of 33-year-old Kelsie Todacheeny, San Juan County jail records reviewed by Law&Crime show. The defendant also faces a charge of tampering with evidence.
At about 3:30 a.m. on Jan. 15, 2024, the Farmington Police Department responded to a home on the 2400 block of East 20th Street in Farmington, due to a "medical call." The city lies in the northwest part of the state, close to Colorado.
Officers say they found Todacheeny dead inside the home. They began investigating the case as a "suspicious death," noting that the "circumstances" surrounding her death were "under scrutiny."
Becenti — the victim's longtime boyfriend — was the one who called in Todacheeny's death, the Tri-City Record reported, citing an arrest affidavit. He told police that he left his girlfriend's home to buy dog food from Walmart about two hours before and returned to find her body.
Police, however, were apparently skeptical. Not only was Walmart closed at this time — a fact officers told Becenti and to which he allegedly replied, "I guess I didn't" — but the couple had an "alcohol-fueled" history of domestic abuse.
One of Todacheeny's friends reportedly showed police videos of the victim with a black eye and Becenti in the background calling her a "crackhead" and saying that he was going to kill her as well as "You are going to die tonight." In other videos from two days before the grim discovery, Todacheeny seemed to be sleeping on a couch as a man called her names and was "manipulating" her face.
When authorities looked over Todacheeny's body, she had "bruising beneath her left eye," and her "right cheek also appeared swollen," according to the affidavit. Her autopsy revealed that she died due to "asphyxial injuries and blunt trauma," with homicide listed as the manner of death.
According to police, Becenti later conceded that he and his girlfriend "were arguing" the night of her death.
Investigators also obtained video footage from a nearby Speedway convenience store reportedly showing Becenti with a "dark-colored stain on the left side of his shirt, below the chest area," which may have been blood.
The defendant is set to appear in court on July 31.
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