Image via WikipediaLOS ANGELES – One of the founding members of a notorious Asian gang convicted last month for his participation in more than half-a-dozen murders and other crimes was sentenced today to spend the remainder of his life in prison.Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry sentenced Marvin Mercado, 37, to eight consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 200 years to life.
Mercado, who eluded authorities for more than a decade to avoid prosecution, was convicted on Feb. 16 of eight counts of first-degree murder and 10 counts of attempted murder with gun and gang allegations found to be true. Jurors also found true a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders.
Deputy District Attorney Hoon Chun of the Organized Crime Division prosecuted the case.
Mercado was a member of the criminal street gang Asian Boyz during the mid 1990s. The charges stem from the defendant’s participation in six gang-motivated shootings between April 1995 and March 1996.
Among the crimes charged were the close-range execution of two rival gang members on April 14, 1995, in Van Nuys and the car-to-car shooting murders of three men on the San Bernardino freeway on Aug. 1, 1995, in El Monte.
Evidence presented at trial also linked Mercado to a flyer party shooting on March 17, 1996, at which time the defendant pulled the pin on what he believed to be a live grenade and threw it into a crowd while his co-conspirator opened fire on partygoers, killing one victim and injuring two others. The crimes took place in Canoga Park, El Monte, Mission Hills, Reseda and Van Nuys.
Seven co-defendants were convicted following a joint six-month trial in 1999.
To escape prosecution, the defendant fled the country and lived in the Philippines under a false name for approximately 12 years. Mercado was deported to the United States in mid 2009.
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