Merendino
Failed suicide puts man in jail
A 48-year-old Key Largo man’s botched suicide attempt has landed him jail on five felony charges.
Just after midnight July 16, Monroe County firefighters responded to an apartment complex at 95165 Overseas Highway after a neighbor of John Merendino called when her smoke alarm went off.
The caller and another person were evacuated from the apartment and fire rescue personnel entered Merendino’s apartment to find him sitting in a bathtub full of water, according to reports from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
As Merendino was being treated by paramedics he told them he set the fire intentionally because “he was sadden[ed] by the loss of a friend and wanted to commit suicide,” according to report from Deputy Bradford Colen.
The fire caused an estimated $70,000 in damage. Inspection of Merendino’s apartment after the fire was extinguished revealed the charred bodies of his two cats.
Merendino is charged with two counts of animal cruelty; two counts of attempted murder related to the danger faced by his two neighbors; and one count of arson.
Merendino, an Atlantic City, N.J., native, has a Florida Keys rap sheet dating back to 2008. He has been arrested for battery, driving without a license and providing false information to a law enforcement officer, among other offenses.
Merendino has yet to be assigned a court date, according to the Monroe County Clerk of the Court’s docket, but his case will be heard by Chief Circuit Court Judge Luis Garcia at the Plantation Key Courthouse.
He’s being held at the Monroe County Detention Center on Stock Island in lieu of $245,000 bond.
[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]
She has always been batsh**t crazy