Mercado convicted in Boote homicide

WILKES-BARRE TWP. — Reynaldo Mercado has been found guilty of murder of the first, second and third degree after a jury deliberated for less than two hours in the case of the murder of Fred Boote.

The verdict comes after the defendant took the stand in his own defense on Wednesday morning, but his testimony confirmed large parts of prosecutors’ theory of the case, while attempting to shift some blame to his former co-defendant and the deceased victim.

Mercado, 33, has been on trial this week for the grisly homicide of Boote, stabbed to death in his Donald Court home in September 2018. Prosecutors have described the death to jurors as the result of a poorly-executed robbery scheme, hatched by Mercado along with then-14-year-old Louisa Reyes, who has since pleaded guilty to a count of second-degree murder.

Mercado was called to testify by defense attorney Allyson Kacmarski on Wednesday morning, and spent much of the morning confirming large details of what prosecutors have said.

According to Mercado, the evening began, as Reyes testified on Tuesday, with worries about money. He said he had had a few drinks that evening after a stressful evening at work, and decided he needed to find an empty house to burglarize to get some cash, leading himself and Reyes to walk around the neighborhood of their shared Maffett Street home.

While Reyes testified on Tuesday that they initially went to a home occupied by an elderly woman who would not let her in, Mercado said on the stand on Wednesday that this did not happen.

According to Mercado, Reyes said they should go to Boote’s home, where she had previously lived, to pick up some old sheets — at nearly 1 a.m. The pair went to Boote’s home, at which point Reyes talks her way into the home, and then signaled Mercado to come into the home to burglarize it while Boote headed upstairs.

While he was downstairs and Reyes and Boote were upstairs, Mercado said he heard a “little yelp” from upstairs. He ran upstairs and saw Reyes and Boote sitting on a love seat together, with Boote’s arm around the back of the chair. Assuming that this meant Boote was attempting to sexually assault Reyes, Mercado said he began to attack Boote.

Mercado seemed to attempt to shift blame to Reyes, pointing out that she was the one who grabbed the deadly knife from the kitchen, saying that she gestured for him to take it. He took it, and then began to stab Boote multiple times, before attempting to burn Boote’s body because he wanted to destroy any evidence that “had anything to do with me.”

During cross-examination by Assistant District Attorney Tony Ross, the prosecutor balked at Mercado’s claims.

During cross-examination, Mercado said that the violence escalated when Boote was attempting to fight back.

“Fight back?” Ross exclaimed, anger evident in his voice. “He was in his own home!”

Mercado continued to attempt to shift blame to Reyes, saying that Boote would still be alive if Reyes had not brought the knife upstairs.

“And if you didn’t sneak in, and if you didn’t run upstairs, if you didn’t take the knife, he would still be alive,” Ross shot back. “Let’s talk about accountability.”

Closing arguments

After Mercado’s testimony, counsel presented their closing arguments. Kacmarski’s were incredibly brief, lasting only a few minutes. During them, she suggested jurors might be disinclined to trust Reyes, due to the fact that she might be angling for a more lenient sentence.

“The real thing she’s concerned about is her sentence, which hasn’t happened yet,” Kacmarski said, before later going on to suggest that prosecutors had not been able to prove an intent to kill.

Ross, though, felt otherwise. He pulled out the knife that was used to kill Boote, and showed it to jurors one last time while reminding them of the number of times Boote had been stabbed in his back, chest and head.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I will give you … 50 examples of specific intent,” Ross said, knife in hand. “That is specific intent to kill.”

Ross hearkened back to Assistant District Attorney Drew McLaughlin’s opening statements on Monday, during which McLaughlin said the story started with Boote’s golden retriever Joe being found, lost on the streets of Wilkes-Barre. Officers discovered the brutal crime scene upon bringing Joe home.

If that’s how the story started, Ross told jurors that now they had the opportunity to end it.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we look to you to write the ending of this story. This ending must be a finding of guilt,” he said. “Ladies and gentlemen, with your verdict, conclude this story, convict this man, find him guilty of first degree murder and every other charge because he is.”

A verdict

And in less than two hours, convicting Mercado of all charges was exactly what the jury did, including finding him guilty on one count each of first, second and third degree murder.

Mercado was also found guilty of all related counts, including abuse of a corpse, robbery, burglary, conspiracy to commit arson and others.

Speaking with reporters after the conviction was rendered, Ross said he is glad that the story has come to its end.

“This was a brutal murder, that took the life of a father of four, and that’s a loss that we will never be able to make up to this family,” Ross said. “However, we hope that this verdict will give the family a sense of closure, that justice has been served, and that the defendant has been held accountable for the crimes he committed, most specifically first degree murder in this brutal, brutal attack.”

Ross said that, throughout the case, the prosecution team believed it was evident that Mercado had the specific intent to kill, and that he is appreciative of the jury for reaching that same conclusion.

The Boote family did not speak with reporters after the verdict, but they did issue a statement, thanking prosecutors for their help in the case.

“On behalf of the Boote family, we would like to express our gratitude to the district attorney’s office, detectives, Wilkes-Barre and state police that worked tirelessly on bringing justice to our father, and our family,” the statement from the family says. “We are grateful to our community and the continuous love and support we have received. We understand this was a loss to many in our community. Their support has been monumental in carrying our hearts, and our lifting our spirits through this awful experience.”

Since Mercado has been found guilty of first degree murder, his sentence is nearly a foregone conclusion, since first degree murder carries an automatic life sentence in Pennsylvania. However, Mercado will not have to wait long for the sentence to be made formal, as both he and Reyes will appear before Luzerne County President Judge Michael T. Vough on Thursday morning to be sentenced.