Divorce and property division were imminent for a woman accused of stabbing her husband 140 times

Melvin Weller, 62, filed for divorce from his longtime wife Joan Burke in late December, court records show.

Now Burke is charged with his murder following what police called a “violent struggle” involving kitchen knives and a meat cleaver.

Following a 911 call from Weller’s stepson, Palm Springs police arrived at the couple’s home on February 11 to find Weller lying in a pool of blood that covered more than half of the kitchen floor. with “multiple stab wounds and lacerations to his body”. according to the arrest affidavit.

An autopsy revealed that Weller had been stabbed 140 times all over his body and “he also had a fractured skull caused by a meat cleaver blow to the right rear of his head”.

Police say they found knives and a meat cleaver in the kitchen sink, a bloody nightgown in a garbage bag near the body.

And in the bedroom, they discovered Weller’s wife, Joan Burke, 61, with cuts to her hands and not saying a word. His impending divorce is no longer an issue.

“I don’t have words to say exactly how I feel. It didn’t need to happen; it could have been dealt with by the courts in the best possible way,” said attorney Nicole Hamil-Scott .

Attorney Nicole Hamil-Scott handled Weller’s divorce proceedings.

She mentions a possible piece of litigation: allegedly millions of dollars of real estate that, under Florida law, would have to be divided. She says she had just had a meeting outlining some of the terms with Burke’s attorney a week before the murder.

“That could be one of the reasons…under Florida law, whenever there is marital property under Florida law, that marital property should be equally divided between the parties and certainly without get too into solicitor-client privilege, the parties had substantial assets between them,” Hamil-Scott said.

Hamil-Scott said one of those assets could have been Burke’s pension from her job – public records show she was laid off as a nursing assistant – half of that should also have gone to her future ex-husband.

“We remember Mr. Weller coming into our office – a very kind, calm and loving man. It was the last thing we expected from a marriage dissolution petition,” Hamil- Scott.

Hamil-Scott said Weller was ready to split the couple’s assets equally and continue his retirement in his native Jamaica. However, she said they were investigating a possible quitclaim deed on one of the couple’s properties that could have taken their name off the deed and someone else put it on.

According to police, Weller was disabled and had difficulty walking.

Burke remains in the Palm Beach County Jail for murder.