Mercado re-sentenced for 2018 murder

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

Nov. 8—WILKES-BARRE — Convicted murderer Reynaldo Mercado was re-sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without parole for the 2018 killing of Fred Boote during a home robbery in Wilkes-Barre.

Mercado, 32, did benefit by having four years, six months to nine years shaved off his total sentence.

Mercado was back before Luzerne County President Judge Michael T. Vough to correct a legal gaffe when he was originally sentenced on Nov. 19, 2020.

The issue involved Mercado's sentence regarding criminal conspiracy to commit arson and criminal conspiracy to commit robbery.

Along with the two conspiracy convictions, a jury convicted Mercado on first-degree murder, second-degree murder, third-degree murder, burglary, robbery, theft, arson, abuse of corpse and tampering with evidence. A conviction for first-degree murder carries a mandatory life in prison without parole.

While the Pennsylvania Superior Court upheld Mercado's convictions on nine total counts, the appellate court ordered that he be re-sentenced.

When Vough originally sentenced Mercado in November 2020, the two conspiracy counts were ordered to run consecutively resulting in a total sentence of 32-to-64 years in state prison in addition to the life in prison mandatory sentence.

After Vough re-sentenced Mercado to life in prison for the first-degree murder conviction, he received 27 years, six months to 55 years in state prison for the non-murder convictions.

First Assistant District Attorney Anthony Ross and assistant district attorneys Drew McLaughlin and Gerry Scott prosecuted Mercado and co-conspirator, Louisa Alexandria Reyes.

Detectives with Wilkes-Barre police and the district attorneys office alleged Reyes, then 14, on Sept. 14, 2018, talked her way inside Boote's home on Donald Court and partially left the front door open allowing Mercado to enter. Reyes was known to Boote.

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

Reyes, 18, pled guilty to second-degree murder and sentenced by Vough to 40-years-to-life in state prison.

Reyes' sentence was upheld on appeal.