Convicted killer Mercado to be re-sentenced

Ed Lewis, The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
·2 min read
1

Aug. 30—The Pennsylvania Superior Court has ordered convicted killer Reynaldo Mercado to be re-sentenced to fix a legal technicality.

Mercado, 35, was found guilty by a Luzerne County jury in the killing of Fred Boote, 58, inside the victim's Donald Court home in Wilkes-Barre on Sept. 14, 2018.

First Assistant District Attorney Anthony Ross, and assistant district attorneys Drew McLaughlin and Gerry Scott proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Mercado conspired with Louisa Alexandria Reyes, then 14, to rob Boote.

As Reyes, now 18, talked her way inside the home, she partially left the front door open allowing Mercado to enter.

Once inside, Mercado killed Boote and burned his body conspiring with Reyes to steal $25 from the home.

Following the trial held at Mohegan Sun Arena in November 2020, the jury convicted Mercado of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, third-degree murder, burglary, robbery, theft, arson, abuse of corpse, tampering with evidence, criminal conspiracy to commit robbery and criminal conspiracy to commit arson.

President Judge Michael T. Vough, who presided over the trial, sentenced Mercado to life in prison without parole for the murder convictions plus 32-to-64 years in prison on the non-murder convicted offenses.

Included in the 32-to-64 years Mercado received in prison involves six-to-12 years for the robbery conspiracy conviction and five-to-10 years for the arson conspiracy conviction.

Mercado challenged the jury's verdicts and sentence claiming the evidence did not support he conspired with Reyes to kill Boote and set his body on fire.

The Superior Court in a nine-page order upheld Mercado's murder convictions but ordered him to be re-sentence finding a legal gaffe involving the sentence imposed for the two conspiracy convictions.

"The robbery and the arson were highly interdependent and part of a continuing and logically related objective. The commission of a violent theft followed an effort to conceal and destroy evidence of multiple crimes. Thus, the trial court erred in imposing consecutive sentences for both conspiracy to commit robbery and conspiracy to commit arson," the Superior Court ruled.

Since Mercado's conspiracy sentences were ordered by Vough to run consecutive, the appellate court ruled the sentences should had merged to run at the same time.

"We are reviewing the Superior Court's decision and considering further appeal options regarding the consecutive sentences," Ross said Tuesday noting Mercado's conviction and life sentence without parole was upheld.

Mercado could see a reduction of one-to-two years for the two conspiracy convictions.

Reyes pled guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced by Vough to 40-years-to-life in prison. The Superior Court upheld her sentence in April 2022.