VIRGINIA BEACH — A Virginia Beach mother was murdered with cyanide on Valentine’s Day, and her ex-boyfriend remains accused of her death.
Now, recently unsealed search warrants filed in Virginia Beach Circuit Court give insight into possible evidence authorities have against him.
Thirty-five-year-old Ellie Mizon Tran died of cyanide poisoning in Princess Anne Hospital on Feb. 15, the day after she was attacked in her 1900 Still Meadow Court driveway.
Accused is 29-year-old Joseph “Joey” Merlino III, Tran’s ex-boyfriend and the father of her young daughter.
Merlino was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in connection with Tran’s death on Feb. 16. He was also charged with first-degree murder on Sept. 5 after a grand jury issued a true bill on the case, according to the Virginia Courts Case Information System.
When a grand jury issues a true bill it means that they believe there is enough evidence to send a case to trial.
Police searched Merlino’s home in the 1200 block of Warner Hall Drive on Feb. 17 and found multiple guns, ammunition, a tactical vest, gun parts, a camouflage case holding a Kevlar vest and a camouflage helmet. They also found “multiple blue plastic containers with various chemicals/substances” in them, court documents state.
The same day, the VBPD searched Merlino’s business, a cell phone and electronics repair shop located at 1705 Mediterranean Avenue. They collected several items, including a blue bottle with a “white substance” inside it, court documents allege.
An officer wrote in the search warrant that police spoke with an FBI agent who specializes in chemical substances. That agent said that “cyanide can come in powder form and in crystal form and can be mixed with liquid to be able to be injected using a needle … internet searches can be utilized to find common chemicals that contain cyanide as well as the amount needed to kill a person,” according to court documents.
During a search of Merlino’s business, police also found several items with the Apple iPhone and Otterbox logos on them, which authorities believed to be counterfeit. Evidence showed that the items displayed duplicate and identical serial numbers, which wouldn’t be likely if they were legitimate, court documents state.
A repair shop employee told police that he “knew the iPhones were fake,” and that Merlino had recently shipped the merchandise to the store while visiting China, court documents allege.
The search warrants were unsealed in October — about nine months after the Virginia Beach Police Department responded to Tran’s home for the report of a shooting only to find that she’d been injected with cyanide, according to court documents.
‘She was terrified’
The attack happened around 8 p.m. when Tran’s mother Oanh Le was inside the family home. She told police that she heard her daughter scream for help, and when she opened the front door Tran said she’d been “stabbed” in her thigh and was completely numb, Le testified during an Aug. 24 preliminary hearing for Merlino.
In a January interview, Le told Southside Daily that Tran was able to call 911 herself, but she quickly became so sick that she couldn’t speak, lost consciousness and needed a breathing tube. Court documents state that as Tran walked into the family home she began having seizures and collapsed.
“She was terrified,” Le testified on Aug. 24.
Police watched surveillance video that captured Tran’s murder. They observed a suspect who was wearing a black tool belt with a “large pouch” attached to it, court documents state.
Le testified that she ran outside and saw Merlino run across the street, which was in line with what she told police on the day the attack happened, court documents show. On Aug. 24, court officials showed Le the surveillance footage, and she also identified Merlino as the attacker at that time.
Tran’s friends and family said that she and Merlino had a tumultuous relationship for about three years before they broke up. Le told police that the pair were in the middle of a custody battle over their daughter, Jolie, who was 2 years old when her mother was killed.
Several people told police and Southside Daily that Merlino had threatened and harmed Tran in the past.
‘My boyfriend scared me’
One of those incidents allegedly happened on Dec. 4, 2016 when Tran told police Merlino dressed up as a woman and attacked her outside of her job.
Tran’s best friend, Diamond Phan, told Southside Daily in February that Tran was leaving her job at KT Nails II on Laskin Road when a man threw acid on her. Tran turned her face, but the substance burned her hair and she was taken to the hospital.
In a police report, Tran said that a car purposefully hit her vehicle as she was leaving work. When she got out of her car, a man dressed like a woman threw liquid on into her face that made her eyes burn, court documents state.
Footage of the alleged attack showed a car entering the parking lot before Tran got off of work, then “intentionally” hitting her car.
“It then shows a male wearing a wig and dressed as a female throw some type of substance into her face,” court document state.
Months earlier, Tran also pressed criminal charges against Merlino after she told police he’d assaulted her in front of their daughter.
“My boyfriend scared me. He told me he will put me under the ground behind his house,” Tran wrote in a July 11, 2016 criminal complaint filed in Virginia Beach Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
Tran went on to detail the alleged attack, writing that Merlino grabbed her by the neck, restrained her hands and feet and hung her upside down with her head almost touching the ground.
“I could not do anything,” she wrote. “He did that to me several times in front of my daughter … My daughter was so scared and she cried and scream [sic].”
Merlino was charged with assault against a family member. The charge was dismissed with prejudice, and Merlino was fined $1,000.
Send news tips to [email protected].
