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WILKES-BARRE — An attorney for homicide suspect Reynaldo Mercado who, along with Louisa Reyes, stands accused in the fatal stabbing of Fred Boote in Wilkes-Barre nearly two years ago, filed a motion seeking a separate trial.
Attorney Allyson L. Kacmarski also filed a motion seeking to exclude and prohibit evidence, including the sexual relationship between Mercado, 33, and Reyes, 15.
Wilkes-Barre police charged Mercado and Reyes in a plot to rob Boote inside his home on Donald Court on Sept. 14, 2018. After Reyes talked her way inside Boote’s residence, she allegedly left the front door ajar allowing Mercado to sneak inside.
Assistant District Attorneys Anthony G. Ross III and Drew McLaughlin have said Boote was stabbed 52 times and his body burned with gasoline Reyes retrieved from the garage.
Mercado and Reyes allegedly got away with $25, court records say.
They were captured on the outskirts of New York City several days after Wilkes-Barre police Officer James Fischer discovered Boote’s body while returning a loose dog to the house.
In a previous ruling, Luzerne County President Judge Michael T. Vough denied a request by Reyes’ attorney, Frank McCabe, to transfer her case for prosecution and rehabilitation in juvenile court.
Vough scheduled jury selection to begin Nov. 13 with the trial to commence Nov. 16.
In her motion to have a separate trial, Kacmarski believes Reyes may intend to introduce evidence of her age as well as a sexual relationship that existed as part of her defense.
Kacmarski claims Reyes’ possible defense strategy and testimony will be prejudicial and unfair to Mercado.
Mercado is planning a defense that would conflict with Reyes’ defense that would result in the jury to chose between each defendant, Kacmarski wrote in the motion for a separate trial.
Kacmarski also is seeking to have an open count of criminal homicide and other charges dismissed against Mercado arguing prosecutors failed to establish a case at the preliminary hearing. She is also seeking to prohibit prosecutors from using Mercado’s criminal record, limit expert witnesses called by prosecutors, prohibit prosecutors and Reyes from disclosing her age to the jury, prohibit the sexual relationship between Mercado and Reyes, and to forbid any pictures recovered from Mercado’s cell phone during the trial.
Prosecutors are likely to file a response to Kacmarski’s motions.
Reyes is facing charges of second-degree murder and related offenses.