- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Occidental man sentenced for killing of Lucerne resident
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Nearly two months after he originally was set to have been sentenced for killing his employer, an Occidental man on Thursday morning was given decades in state prison.
Judge J. David Markham handed down to 27-year-old Nova Maye Deperno a sentence of 35 years to life for the August 2021 killing of 63-year-old Ronald Meluso of Lucerne.
During the Thursday hearing, Deperno — who had surprised his attorney before — did so again by insisting, against his attorney’s advice, on giving a statement to the court that attempted to justify his actions. To do that, he claimed childhood hardships and even blamed his victim.
Judge Markham wasn’t impressed by Deperno’s claims, and said he should have listened to his attorney and not spoken at all.
“The guy is a manipulative, dangerous psychopath, I think,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff, who prosecuted Deperno, told Lake County News later on Thursday.
The sentence Markham handed down was the result of a plea agreement reached earlier this year between the District Attorney’s Office and Deperno’s attorney, Kevin Davenport. It gives Deperno 25 years to life for Meluso’s death, with another 10 years for an enhancement for use of a gun in the killing.
Meluso had given Deperno a place to stay and a job in the lead up to the murder, which occurred during a seven-month-long spree of crimes committed by Deperno from July 2020 to February 2021.
During that time, Deperno’s crimes — which involved several victims — included assault with a firearm, vandalism, felony evading of law enforcement, negligent discharge of a firearm due to shooting into a home and threats, including telling victims he was a member of the Mexican and Italian mafias.
In one case, Deperno told a young woman he planned to kill and dismember her, and sell her body parts to the Mexican mafia.
During Thursday’s sentencing hearing, Hinchcliff said Deperno had bragged in texts to friends that he intended to kill Meluso before luring him to a remote area in the hills above Nice and fatally shooting him.
Hinchcliff told Lake County News that a motivation for the crime was that Deperno needed money.
Information the prosecution developed during the investigation was that Meluso was running from Deperno when he was shot and that he was shot in the back.
However, Hinchcliff said they couldn’t prove that as when they found Meluso’s remains five months later, there were just a few bones left.
Deperno was arrested in Occidental on Jan. 13, 2022, after a manhunt and with the help of a SWAT team. The following day, he led authorities to the site near Bartlett Springs where he had left Meluso’s body.
Sentencing originally had been set for April, but at that hearing the proceedings took a bizarre turn when Deperno surprised his own attorney and the prosecution by objecting to a portion of the plea deal involving a lesser charge of assault with a deadly weapon.
That lesser charge, related to Deperno’s having pointed a gun at a young woman’s head, required he receive three years in prison to be served concurrently with the murder case, meaning he wouldn't have any additional time.
However, Deperno claimed at the April hearing that it was a “completely fabricated incident.”
In followup hearings this spring, the District Attorney’s Office agreed to drop that charge with a Harvey waiver and let Deperno instead plead guilty to felony terrorist threats in a different case in order to move forward with the sentencing in the Meluso murder.
Hinchcliff said that updated agreement meant they wouldn’t have to go through a lengthier process of withdrawing the full plea. “It just made sense since we were going to get the exact same sentence.”
Victim remembered in impact statements; Deperno tries to justify actions
An advocate for Lake County Victim-Witness read four victim impact statements from Meluso’s family and friends, recalling him as a generous, kind, compassionate and giving man.
His older brother, John Meluso Jr., said Ronald Meluso’s life ended too soon. At the same time, he said Deperno’s life has been wasted. “Two lives wasted — for what reason?”
Gloria Buxton, his sister-in-law, said Meluso was shot in the back by someone he believed to be his friend.
She said he left behind many who adored him, and his death left a hole in their family, with Meluso having always been the happy one. Buxton said it was still hard to believe he is gone.
Deperno, she added, showed no remorse and is a threat to society.
After the statements, Deperno said he wanted to speak, which Davenport advised him not to do.
Nevertheless, Deperno went forward with making a rambling, repetitious statement that attempted to blame Meluso, claiming that “it’s not that I’m not a compassionate person in a lot of ways.”
Adding, “There’s no point in crying a river,” Deperno said he has lost a lot of people in his life. “I was put through all sorts of things as a child.”
He said he could appreciate that Meluso had done good things for him. “I don’t want to slander Ron,” Deperno said, then proceeded to claim he tried to be kind and “even helpful” to Meluso, and that it wasn’t accepted the way everyone envisioned.
“Am I a violent person? Not really, to be honest,” said Deperno, adding, “The whole situation is heartbreaking at the least.”
Deperno said he hoped something good will come out of it before continuing to claim he was victimized in the process, including making an allegation that Meluso had drugged him.
“My heart goes out to his family. I’m sorry,” said Deperno.
Deperno, the son of a well-known designer and contractor in Sonoma County, added, “It’s not that I don’t care. It’s just that my life has been really hard since I was a young kid.” As a result, he said he doesn’t know what to do other than retaliate.
He ended by saying he feels bad for contributing to violence and that he should have thought through his actions. “Sitting in a cell all day doesn’t agree with me.”
A trail of violence
Hinchcliff went over the charges in the case, including the fact that Deperno pleaded to first-degree murder with premeditation and the use of a firearm in killing Meluso, along with a guilty plea to terrorist threats, leading to the 35-years-to-life sentence.
“The defendant just stated he’s not a violent person. In fact, he’s a very violent person,” said Hinchcliff.
Hinchcliff said the other cases against Deperno were dismissed with a Harvey waiver, which allows them to be considered in sentencing and helps with restitution orders.
Those other cases include a felony vandalism charge from July 2020, in which Deperno used a stick to break two rear windows out of a woman’s vehicle, and another case involving an officer’s attempt at a felony traffic stop that led to a four and a half mile pursuit at speeds of up to 80 miles per hour.
In another case from October 2021, two months after he killed Meluso, Deperno committed assault with a firearm, terrorist threats, child abuse and attempted to dissuade a witness, Hinchcliff said.
A fourth case involved a 16-year-old female who said she was arguing with Deperno at a residence into which he had shot a firearm earlier that night. She said Deperno pointed a gun at the right side of her head and said he could kill her right now.
“This was something we found out about during the murder investigation,” because Deperno had threatened to kill her, cut up her body and sell it to a Mexican cartel, Hinchcliff said.
Still another case, from February 2021 — six months before Meluso’s murder — involved charges of assault with a firearm and terrorist threats, with Deperno threatening an 18-year-old woman with whom he lived at the time.
Hinchcliff said Deperno pointed a Glock handgun at the young woman’s chest and threatened her. She slapped the gun out of his hand, and then he slammed her head into the floor six or seven times.
The young woman fled, only to receive threats from Deperno threatening to kill her, her family and her dogs, Hinchcliff said.
In January of 2021, Deperno showed up at a residence and began yelling at two males because he was angry at one of them for snitching on him about a hit-and-run case in which he was involved. In that incident, Hinchcliff said Deperno claimed to be with the Italian mafia and fired a gun at their residence.
Based on his increasingly violent behavior, Hinchcliff said it was no wonder Deperno ended up committing a murder.
Hinchcliff said Deperno began living with Meluso and working for him. Meluso was last heard from on Aug. 19, 2021, and was reported missing three days later. Investigators found his home had been rummaged through and his prized silver Chevrolet Camaro was missing.
On Aug. 8 of that year, Deperno had started asking people about getting a firearm and said he was going to “whack” a guy who had a silver Camaro. Hinchcliff said it was premeditated, with Deperno having told people he just needed a gun and that it could solve all of the debt he owed.
Afterward, he texted a friend that he “got it done.” On Aug. 26, 2021, he sold Meluso’s Camaro for $6,000.
When Deperno was located, it took a SWAT team to finally apprehend him in Sonoma County on Jan. 13, 2022. The following day, Deperno showed officers where he had left Meluso’s body.
Davenport, for his part — as he continued to tell Deperno not to speak — said Deperno deserved some credit for taking law enforcement to the location of Meluso’s body. “I think that has some meaning.”
He said he wasn’t sure why Deperno committed the crime, and asked for the tens of thousands of dollars in fines, primarily for restitution, to be struck from the judgment.
Hinchcliff said the District Attorney’s Office did take Deperno’s cooperation and his age at the time of the crimes — he was under 26, which gives him youthful offender status and therefore some potential parole benefit in the future — into consideration.
Deperno then began to speak again, saying he confessed, he felt bad and he wasn’t going to be slandered.
He took issue with Hinchcliff’s statements about his criminal history. “If you could have proved those things, then you should have done that,” Deperno said.
He added, “I don’t mind paying for stuff.”
“You said that already. Stop,” said Davenport.
Judge hands down sentence
Judge Markham honored the sentencing agreement for 35 years to life.
With regard to Deperno, “What Mr. Hinchcliff said was absolutely true,” said Markham, noting there is absolutely no question that Deperno is an extremely violent person.
Unless he makes significant changes, Markham said Deperno should spend the rest of his life in prison.
Referring to Buxton’s comments about Deperno not being remorseful, Markham agreed, noting that as the victim impact statements were read, Deperno had a smirk on his face. He later attempted to justify his crimes, only apologizing afterward.
Davenport had noted during the hearing that Deperno could qualify for early release due to being a youthful offender. Markham said that’s correct, but it likely will be decades from now.
Markham said Deperno is solely responsible for ending up in prison. “He’s not going to prison because he had a hard life” or because Meluso did something he didn’t like. Rather, he made the decision to take the life of another human being.
Markham added that Deperno should have listened to Davenport when it came to not speaking in court. “I understand why he gave you that advice. It was probably advice you should have taken.”
He then ordered Deperno to serve the prison term and to pay a $10,000 restitution fine, with a second of that same amount reserved unless parole is revoked. Deperno also will receive 519 days for time already served.
Later on Thursday, Hinchcliff said he had been concerned Deperno would try to derail the sentencing once again, as he had in April. “I was actually kinda surprised that he didn’t, that he didn’t try something else.”
While Deperno has maintained that he’s a nice guy, who likes dogs and cats, making cookies with his girlfriend and painting, he also points guns at people’s heads, Hinchcliff said.
Hinchcliff, who called Deperno a narcissist, said that they could have taken the case to trial, and even if they had gotten 200 years to life, Deperno eventually would have been eligible both for youthful offender and senior offender considerations. As a youthful offender, he will automatically be eligible for a parole hearing after 20 years for the first-degree murder case.
However, if that happens, Hinchcliff said he hopes that the parole board will see the trial record, including Deperno’s comments in court.
“I was real eager for him to be able to say whatever he wanted to say to the judge,” Hinchcliff said, noting everything Deperno said will be put in a transcript of the plea proceeding.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.