WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – Jose Guillermo Yecerra-Ascanio, a 23-year-old from Venezuela, is accused of fatally stabbing fellow Venezuelan Melvin Gonzlez Vellos, who was 22 years old, on Thursday, Aug. 1, early in the morning.

Judge Russell Davis decided Friday that Yecerra-Ascanio will be held without bond on the charge of first-degree murder, and was given a $1,000 secured bond on a misdemeanor assault charge that he was arrested for on July 28. The misdemeanor charge was domestic-violence related, according to the Wilmington Police Department.

He is also under an ICE hold, meaning that authorities are asking the jail to hold him in custody for another 48 hours before releasing him to let ICE take him in.

Per the WPD, officers arrived at the 500 block of Mercer Avenue near Randall Parkway at around 8 a.m. on Thursday.

Police began a search for a the suspect’s vehicle, a red Chrysler with Illinois registration, which was located in the 900 block of Saint Andrews Dr. While New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office deputies and WPD officers were at the scene, a vehicle unrelated to the homicide pulled up with the suspect as a passenger.

Yecerra-Ascanio was taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder.

He was also arrested at the same address on July 28 for a misdemeanor assault, which was domestic violence-related. The victim of that assault is not the same victim of today’s homicide.

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