A Long Island man has been indicted for allegedly choking his domestic partner to death in their Huntington Station home nearly three years ago, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Georgios Boultadakis, 25, is accused of killing his partner of two years, John Melnikoff, Jr., in the basement of their home in August 2022 and then faking performing CPR during a 911 call.
Boultadakis, a former Town of Oyster Bay Parks Department employee, was indicted for second-degree murder in the “tragic and brutal murder of a domestic partner,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced Wednesday.
The case, which unfolded in the early hours of Aug. 8, 2022, was initially being investigated as an “unattended death” since early investigation showed “no obvious sign of foul play” and detectives found no evidence of a struggle.
However, after an autopsy determined that Melnikoff had died from neck compression, the case became a homicide investigation, prosecutors said.
According to investigators, Boultadakis called 911 to report that he had found his partner “passed out at the foot of the basement stairs of their Huntington Station home and was not moving or breathing” and heard instructions on how to perform CPR, a lifesaving procedure.
During the call, Boultadakis’ actions and statements “created reasonable belief in the operator that CPR was being performed,” prosecutors said.
When first responders arrived at the scene, Melnikoff was pronounced dead.
Boultadakis was arrested on March 3, 2025. He was indicted at a Suffolk County Court hearing on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty.
At the hearing, Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Dena Rizopoulos Suffolk County described how Boultadakis held Melnikof in a four-minute chokehold after hitting him in the neck as he “prayed for forgiveness,” Newsday reported.
Boultadakis’ defense attorney claims he acted in self-defense.
“[Melnikof] threatened to kill my client, threatened to kill his family, came at him with a knife,” William Keahon said. “The two of them went to the ground. My client was trying to prevent himself from being killed.”
Judge Timothy P. Mazzei ordered Boultadakis held without bail. He’s due back in court on April 15.
