Summary Of Sandra Melgar's Crimes

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A cold hearted wife wanting an out from her marriage and entitlement to her husband's life insurance is how Sandra Melgar is portrayed in People’s magazine after she was found guilty of first degree murder. The crime that occurred on December 23, 2012 was a home invasion in which Jaime Melgar was beaten and stabbed thirty times to death, while Sandra Melgar who claimed to have had a seizure during the invasion was tied up and locked in the closet (Helling, 2017). The couple were found by their friends who were coming over for the couple's 32nd wedding anniversary party, and as soon as they entered the home they knew something had happened. In regards to the magazine article, Melgar is depicted as a vicious wife who was the only one to blame …show more content…

By having these pictures in place while reading the article the reader will be taken away by the pictures and take a stance on whether or not Melgar is innocent. Of course, by over emphasizing the crime that took place and using non humanizing photographs, the audience is more prone to believe she is guilty due to their lack of prior knowledge of the case. With this in mind the medium was using a social breakdown frame that states a crime occurred due to a family breakdown. According to the article, Melgar wanted a divorce but because she was a religious individual in which her religion disapproved of divorce, her only choice was to kill her husband to be single again. In addition to that, they also made her seem as if she wanted the money that was under her husband's life insurance, a total of $250,000 that of course the article did not fail to include. Through these the social break down frame is portrayed through making it seem as if Melgar was unhappy with her family and wanted an out, so she turned to crime to solve this issue. With the use of this frame the audience was also able to see multiple ‘what ifs’ explanations as to why the crime might have taken place, convincing them more that Melgar is the only one to

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