This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
West Jordan • The worst pain that Randy Melo ever felt was on a December day in 2014 when he had to tell his granddaughter that her mother had been shot and killed by a man.
It was the day before Candice Christina Melo's 26th birthday — and just days before Christmas — when Larry Kent Graff pulled the trigger and struck her three times.
"No pain [Graff] ever feels will ever equal that," Randy Melo said Thursday during Graff's sentencing hearing. "No time in jail will ever equal that."
Christina Melo's family urged 3rd District Judge Heather Brereton to give Graff the maximum sentence for shooting and killing the woman as she fled from his home with a laptop in hand.
Prosecutors charged Graff with first-degree felony murder, but a jury in September convicted him of a lesser count of second-degree felony manslaughter.
Randy Melo on Thursday called Graff "a cold-blooded killer who got away with murder."
"This was heart-wrenching," said mother Samantha Melo. "You have taken a little girl's mother. You shot a woman running from your house, in the back. She was no threat to you. You shot a person over something worth less than a $1,000."
Graff, 54, of Sandy, was sentenced Thursday to spend one-to-15 years in the state prison, despite his pleas for leniency.
After apologizing for shooting Candice Melos, he asked that he be able to have his charge reduced to a misdemeanor when he was released from prison.
"It was a result of my action that resulted in Candice dying," Graff told the judge. "Not a day goes by that I don't think about that day and the results of my actions. I will live with this for the rest of my life."
Deputy Salt Lake County Attorney Dave Wayment told the judge that Graff was trying to blame everyone but himself for the shooting, and said he would never agree to reduce the second-degree felony conviction to a lower charge.
"I will go to my grave without ever signing off on a two-step reduction in this matter," Wayment said. "It's not going to happen."
Graff's defense at trial was "imperfect self-defense," and during his testimony, he told jurors he believed he had a right to defend his home and property.
"My understanding from the [concealed carry] class is that your home is your castle and you have a right to protect your castle," Graff testified. "I assumed that when I kept on telling these people to leave my house, the rules applied; that they were there to do grave bodily harm [to me] and I had the right to use force."
On Dec. 18, 2014, Candice Melo had been a temporary roommate of Graff and his girlfriend, Tennel Jensen, at his home in the 300 East block of Gary Avenue (9400 South).
The 7 a.m. shooting followed on argument between Melo and Jensen.
Graff testified that he woke to hear Jensen screaming for help and that when he went to her aid, he was frightened and believed Melo and two other men planned to rob him.
When Melo darted from the house with his laptop, Graff said, he gave chase. Once they were outside his Sandy home, Graff opened fire with a .22-caliber pistol and struck the woman three times. She died eight hours later at a local hospital.
Graff also fired toward another man, Michael Grimsley, but missed.
Graff was charged with attempted murder for firing at Grimsley, but the jury in September hung on that count. Graff will be back in court on Jan. 5, at which time attorneys will decide how to proceed.