California Woman Sentenced for Killing Boyfriend, Burying in Backyard 'Makeshift Tomb'

A 43-year-old Southern Californian woman who slashed her boyfriend’s throat and concealed his corpse inside what police called a “makeshift tomb” in her backyard for eight years has been sentenced to 15 years to prison.

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.

According to the San Bernardino Sun, 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.

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.

After the homicide, “Spicer 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,” the California Post reported. “She later recruited a homeless friend to construct a brick wall over the space to entomb Mercado’s body.

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’s corpse because her family wanted to sell the house, according to the Sun.

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 “a makeshift tomb on the property.”

Addressing Spicer during Friday’s proceedings in San Bernardino Superior Court as part of a victim’s impact statement, Mercado’s sister, Mahira Torres, called Spicer “evil.”

“You took my brother’s life, and you shattered ours,” Torres said.

The San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department is holding Spicer in the county jail until her expected transfer to a California state prison.

Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Masquerade: A True Story of Seduction, Compulsion and Murder, the story of the sordid double life of an elite Detroit psychologist which is revealed only after his murder and dismemberment. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.