Life sentence for man convicted of girlfriend’s 2024 murder in Everett

Published 3:13 pm Wednesday, July 22, 2026

EVERETT — Lindsay Geary’s family and friends are left with only stories and mementos of a beloved daughter, sister and aunt, who’s life was taken at just 37 years old.

Her father, Kenneth Geary, held up a raccoon stuffed animal named Bandit that he recalled giving to his daughter on the day of her birth as he spoke to the judge before the man convicted of Lindsay’s murder was sentenced in Snohomish County Superior Court on Wednesday afternoon.

“That’s all I have now is a memory,” Kenneth Geary said.

A jury found Nestor Hernandez Melgar, 29, guilty last month of killing Lindsay Geary, his girlfriend at the time, inside her Everett apartment on the night of Nov. 16, 2024. Prosecutors said Hernandez Melgar staged the scene of Geary’s death to look like suicide before he called 911.

“How do I begin to describe to you the intense sorrow I feel that so many people have been so hurt, so many lives changed forever by this,” Kenneth Geary told the judge. “All the things that (Lindsay) might have experienced, the love that she might have found, all gone because of the evil actions, the senseless actions of one human being.”

After a four-week trial, Hernandez Melgar was convicted on June 22 of all charges, including aggravated first-degree murder, first-degree murder, first-degree burglary and violation of a court order. Each charge included a special domestic violence aggravator.

On Wednesday, the Geary family heard Superior Court Judge Cindy Larsen deliver a sentence they’d long been waiting for: life in prison.

“Nothing this court does today can bring my sister back, nothing can repair my family, but I respectfully ask the court to impose a maximum sentence allowed on each count,” Kelly Geary, Lindsay’s sister said before sentencing. “He chose to destroy an entire family, because of his actions he will stare at the same four walls for the rest of his life, and hopefully think of his choices every day and see my sister’s face.”

Under Washington state law, an aggravated first-degree murder conviction comes with a presumptive sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Hernandez Melgar’s convictions for first-degree murder and violation of court order were both vacated by the judge due to double jeopardy. He received an additional 34-month sentence for the burglary charge that will run at the same time as his life sentence.

During the trial, prosecutors detailed the couple’s tumultuous relationship, including an active domestic violence no-contact order that lead officers to arrest Hernandez Melgar at the scene of her death, according to court documents.

Prosecutors described how they believe Hernandez Melgar killed Lindsay Geary with a rope found near her body, then used her phone to search methods of suicide and drafted a suicide note, distancing himself from her death.

“The evidence at trial not only established an ongoing pattern of coercive control and abuse but also the lengths that the defendant would go to to obfuscate his involvement in Ms. Geary’s death,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum submitted to the judge.

Hernandez Melgar did not testify in his own defense and chose not to speak before he was sentenced on Wednesday.

His team of public defenders disputed prosecutors allegations throughout the trial, saying the evidence was only circumstantial and noting that there was no DNA evidence linking Hernandez Melgar to Lindsay Geary’s death.

With the mandatory life sentence already presumed, they instead used their sentencing memorandum to describe Hernandez Melgar’s upbringing and the work he was now doing in prison.

“While incarcerated, Mr. Hernandez-Melgar continues working on improving himself,” according to the defense’s sentencing memorandum. “He is an active participant in AA/NA meetings. He spends his time reading the Bible, classic literature and history. In the Department of Corrections, he plans to take advantage of any type of programing he qualifies for and to continue working on improving himself.”

For the Geary family, the sentencing was justice for a wrong that can never be fixed.

“Lindsay’s murder has devastated our family and left a hole in my heart that will never heal,” Darcy Geary, Lindsay’s mother, told the judge before sentencing. “I cannot come to terms that she will never walk through the door, call or text again, it doesn’t seem possible to me.”

Hernandez Melgar has 30 days to appeal his convictions.

Ian Davis-Leonard: 425-339-3097; ian.davis-leonard@heraldnet.com