LOS ANGELES — Jonathan Mercado (30) has pleaded no contest to fatally bludgeoning his parents five years ago, according to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office.
Deputy District Attorney Stacey Solomons prosecuted the case, with Mercado entering his plea to two counts of murder and admitting special allegations of using a deadly and dangerous weapon.
Mercado (30), who lived with his parents and two younger siblings, brutally beat his father, Alexandro (51), and his mother Veronica (47) on September 7, 2012 at their North Hollywood home on the 8100 block of Radford Avenue.
He wrapped his mother’s body in a sheet and placed her in a pickup truck. Sun Valley police responded to a 911 call about a suspicious vehicle on Webb Avenue, to find the truck with her body left a short distance away. Authorities found his father’s body wrapped in a sheet in the family home.
According to reports, Detective Mario Santana, who investigated the case, called the case “strange.” An anonymous neighbor reported that when police arrested him at the bloody scene, Mercado was smiling and laughing. “It’s not like any other case,” Santana said. “It’s just different.”
Case LA071957 was investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department. He was charged on September 13th with two counts of murder, which included the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders.
Prior to his arraignment in Van Nuys, he was being held on $2 million bail, $1 million for each count of capital murder. Since it was filed as a capital case, the District Attorney’s office asked that Mercado be held without bail.
Mercado will be sentenced to 42 years to life in state prison on January 17, 2018.
