Trista Ann Spicer, who said she killed her boyfriend in self-defense after months of abuse and concealed his body in what police described as a “makeshift tomb” in her San Bernardino backyard for eight years, was convicted of second-degree murder on Monday, Nov. 10.
Jurors also found true a sentencing enhancement that Spicer used a deadly weapon to kill 42-year-old Eric Mercado. In this case, the weapon was a cast-iron skillet.
Jurors also weighed potential verdicts of first-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and not guilty.
Second-degree murder is the intentional, unlawful killing of a person, but unlike first-degree murder, it is done without premeditation.
Spicer, now 46, faces a potential term of 16 years to life — 15 for the murder and one for the enhancement — when she is sentenced on Jan. 30 at the San Bernardino Justice Center. Spicer could have been sentenced to 25 years to life if she had been convicted of first-degree murder.
Mercado was considered missing for eight years until 2022, when Spicer’s current boyfriend called police. Spicer had told him eight months earlier that she had to move the body, encased beneath concrete steps, because her family planned to sell the home. The boyfriend’s mother successfully urged him to call the authorities, according to testimony.
“You cannot keep justice in a time capsule,” San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson said after the verdict. “Fortunately, through the presentation of evidence by (Deputy District Attorney) Jennifer Carrillo, the jury realized the truth of what really happened to the victim long ago.”
Spicer testified that she had kicked a meth addiction for six years when she met Mercado around the start of 2014. But within a couple of weeks, she had relapsed after Mercado offered her drugs. And regular physical and verbal abuse soon followed, she said.
Friends of Mercado testified that he was a widely feared, violent man, and Spicer told jurors that she was too afraid of him and his family and friends to report the assaults. Defense attorney Gary W. Smith elicited expert testimony that such abuse can go unreported. Smith asked the jury to find that Spicer killed Mercado in self-defense and acquit her.
On the night of the slaying in October 2014, Spicer testified, she prepared dinner for Mercado. He was displeased with the beans and meat, and he threw it at Spicer, who he had ordered to sit naked on the couch. He also stabbed her in the neck, she testified. When Mercado told Spicer to get coffee for him, she went into the kitchen, grabbed the skillet, and slammed his head with it with two hands, Spicer testified. She then cut his throat with the knife he had dropped.
Spicer testified that Mercado attempted to defend himself. But Carrillo questioned Spicer’s account, noting testimony from the coroner that the blows would have killed Mercado within “seconds.” Spicer stuck to her statement.
Mercado’s family eventually reported him missing. They said Spicer and Mercado appeared to get along.