A jury deliberated 1 ½ days before finding Pierre Mercado, 38, guilty of four first-degree murders, five attempted premeditated murders and two aggravated kidnappings, said Deputy District Attorney Hoon Chun. Jurors also found true gun and gang allegations.
Mercado, aka “Boo Boo,” is the last member to be convicted of gang-motivated shootings between July 1995 and March 1996. He and his older brother, Marvin, fled to the Philippines for more than a decade before they were brought back to Los Angeles for trial in 2007. Marvin Mercado was convicted and sentenced in 2011 to multiple life terms for his conviction of eight gang murders. Wait a minute, the guy has a nick name of "boo boo." Are you kidding me?
Chun, who prosecuted the case with DDA Eugene Hanrahan, said the gang launched a killing spree in the mid ‘90s to instill fear in rival gang members. Pierre Mercado was convicted of the first-degree murders of Cheng Peng, Paul Vu and Ben Liao, who were mistaken for members of a Chinese-based gang and gunned down on Aug. 1, 1995, near the Temple City Boulevard off ramp off the San Bernardino (10) Freeway in El Monte.
Two attempted murder counts stem from a July 5, 1995, incident when Mercado shot at two Marines who were in an open-air Jeep returning to Camp Pendleton. The shooting occurred near LAX on the San Diego (405) Freeway.
On March 17, 1996, Mercado supplied the shotgun used by an accomplice to open fire on party goers on Sherman Way, killing Tony Nguyen and wounding another.
Mercado is facing life in prison when he returns Aug. 24 for sentencing before Judge Curtis Rappe.
In 1999 while the Mercado brothers were hiding out in the Philippines under assumed names, seven co-defendants were convicted and sentenced following a joint six-month trial.
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