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A 43-year-old Southern Californian woman who slashed her boyfriend\u2019s throat and concealed his corpse inside what police called a \u201cmakeshift tomb\u201d in her backyard for eight years has been sentenced to 15 years to prison.<\/p>\n
A San Bernardino jury late last year found Trista Spicer guilty of second degree murder in the October 2014 slaying of her boyfriend Eric Mercado 42, killing him after he complained about the dinner she served him, according to news outlets.<\/p>\n
According<\/a> to the San Bernardino Sun,\u00a0<\/em>Spicer testified during trial that she struck Mercado in the head several times with a cast iron skillet during a violent confrontation after Mercado became upset over the dinner she served him. She then stabbed him in the neck with a kitchen knife he had dropped after she struck him with the skillet.<\/p>\n Spicer testified that Mercado had a history of physically and verbally abusing her, and often made her sit naked for long periods as part of his punishing and controlling behavior.<\/p>\n After the homicide,\u00a0\u201cSpicer enlisted a friend to help her wrap the corpse in a deflated air mattress, and the two hid the body beneath a concrete staircase in her backyard,\u201d the California Post<\/em> reported<\/a>. \u201cShe later recruited a homeless friend to construct a brick wall over the space to entomb Mercado\u2019s body.<\/p>\n Mercado had been reported missing by his family since 2014. That ended when Spicer told her boyfriend at the time in 2022 that she needed to remove the late husband\u2019s corpse because her family wanted to sell the house, according to the Sun.<\/p>\n The boyfriend tipped off police who made the disturbing discovery as they acted on a search warrant of the property, finding what they described as \u201ca makeshift tomb on the property.\u201d<\/p>\n Addressing Spicer during Friday\u2019s proceedings in San Bernardino Superior Court as part of a victim\u2019s impact statement, Mercado\u2019s sister, Mahira Torres, called Spicer \u201cevil.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou took my brother\u2019s life, and you shattered ours,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n The San Bernardino Sheriff\u2019s Department is holding Spicer in the county jail until her expected transfer to a California state prison.<\/p>\n Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Masquerade: A True Story of Seduction, Compulsion and Murder<\/a>, the story of the sordid double life of an elite Detroit psychologist which is revealed only after his murder and dismemberment.<\/em>\u00a0See <\/em>lowellcauffiel.com<\/a> for more.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n