MURDER MYSTERY - TRIPLE HOMICIDE, SAN DIEGO, CA

[HairOfTheDog]

Been following this case for a month. It's a weird one and I hope the SDPD handles it better than they did the McStay family investigation.


Gianni Belvedere - 24, Illona Flint - 22, and Salvatore Belvedere - 22. RIP.

Double Homicide Crime Scene
Just after 1:15 a.m. on Christmas Eve, Ilona Flint called 911 from a car parked outside the Macy's at the Westfield Center Valley Mall in San Diego. She told the dispatcher that she'd been shot in the head and her fiance's brother had been shot too.

When SDPD arrived, they found Illona dead of a gunshot wound to the head. Sal(vatore) was shot in the head and torso. He was still alive, but died 3 days later.

Missing Fiance/Brother - Potential Victim or Suspect?
Ilona Flint's fiance and Sal's brother, Gianni, could not be located. Some media and case followers speculated it was a love triangle gone wrong and that Gianni was behind the killings. But, family and friends of the trio, who don't appear to have criminal records, dismissed the love triangle speculation as garbage right off.

Relationship Background
All three were reportedly appropriately close; Gianni and Illona had been together for 8 years and she lived at the Belvedere home. Flint and the Belvederes were originally from Provo, Utah and moved to California a few years ago when the Belvedere family opened a restaurant in San Diego county; both Gianni and Sal worked at the restaurant.

Gianni and his siblings often picked Illona up from work at the mall as she didn't have a car. The mall had closed late that night due to extended holiday hours. (Belvedere family members believe Gianni might have been at the mall with Illona and Sal that night).

[HairOfTheDog]

Missing Fiance/Brother Located - Third Homicide Victim
Almost a month after the bodies were found at the mall, authorities were tipped about a parked car emitting an odor about 100 miles away in Riverside, near a Jack In The Box restaurant. It was Gianni Belvedere's missing vehicle. In the trunk, PD found Gianni's body. His death was ruled a homicide.

Investigation and Suspect Description
SDPD has been very tight-lipped about the case. On Friday, they finally held a brief press conference (no questions allowed).

Lt. Mike Hastings said the suspect is a man wearing a black hoodie with white bands in the biceps area of the sweatshirt, tan pants and white tennis shoes. He is described as an unknown race, standing 5-foot-10 to 6-foot, police said.

It's believed that the suspect was at the Mission Valley mall at 11:15 p.m. the night before the shooting and returned to the mall at 12:15 a.m. on Dec. 24.

Hastings went on to say that San Diego police have spent hundreds of hours on this case. “If this case can be solved, this case will be solved”.

I don't know if the suspect description came from an eye witness(es), surveillance, or some other source - that's not been disclosed.

There is a $10k reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

There's is no way Flint and the Belvedere brothers were random targets, IMO. PD has confirmed there was no apparent robbery involved. It's not been released how Gianni was killed, but I suspect a bullet to the head. I haven't come across any information about the Belvedere family's business dealings other than owning the restaurant, nor any info on possible enemies of one or more of the victims.

Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/24/us/califor...f=obinsite
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Ch...39911.html

[ZEROSPHERES]

This killer definitely had an accomplice or it done by contract.

[HairOfTheDog]

This killer definitely had an accomplice or it done by contract.

Could be, Zero. I hope we learn a lot more a little later today.

Snip:
SAN DIEGO - San Diego police remained tight-lipped Sunday about motives or other details surrounding the arrest of a suspect in a Christmas Eve triple homicide.

Chief Shelly Zimmerman will hold a news conference at 11:30 a.m. Monday to discuss the arrest of Carlo Gallopa Mercado, 29. He was taken into custody at about 10:30 p.m. Friday in the 8700 block of Westmore Road, a suburban street on Mira Mesa.

Mercado was booked at 7:24 a.m. Saturday for three counts of first-degree murder for the Christmas Eve killing of Ilona Flint and Salvatore Belvedere, both 22, as well as the killing of Salvatore's brother and Flint's fiancé Gianni, 24, whose body was found in the trunk of a car in January.

10News learned late Sunday afternoon that Mercado was transferred from jail to a hospital for an undisclosed injury. It could not be confirmed Monday morning if he was back in jail or still in the hospital.

A friend of the Belvedere family told 10News a resident of the home where Mercado was arrested knows relatives of Sal and Gianni, but it is unclear if the Belvedere brothers knew the suspect.

U-T San Diego reported that Mercado was initially arrested on gun-related charges April 29. His attorney Michael Berg told reporters Sunday that authorities found weapons in his vehicle after he was randomly stopped at an Interstate 5 checkpoint near Camp Pendleton. The date of that incident was not immediately confirmed.

He was initially charged with possession of an assault weapon, possession of a silencer, manufacturing a large-capacity magazine and having a concealed weapon in the vehicle. But he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of possessing the silencer, and prosecutors dropped the remaining charges, U-T San Diego reported.


http://www.10news.com/news/man-arrested-...s-06212014

[HairOfTheDog]

Well, today's press conference revealed very little that hadn't already been covered in the press.



-The suspect Carlo Gallapos Mercado ^ was arrested Friday night.

-He's scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday.

-No comment on why he might have been in the hospital just prior to his arrest.

-No comment on the suspect's connection to the victims.

-The LE spokesperson did intimate that ballistics evidence was critical to the arrest.

-He also intimated that Mercado targeted the Belvedere brothers and Ilona because that would be the "common sense" conclusion, but didn't confirm a connection between the suspect and the victims and wouldn't comment on motive.

-When asked, the LE spokesperson said he wouldn't rule in or out the possibility of accomplices, but confirmed they're focusing on Mercado right now.

-Part of the investigation was handled by Provo, Utah LE because the three victims all lived there previously and attended school together. No word as to whether Mercado had ties with them in Utah.

[Duchess]

If he is the killer, looks sure can be deceiving. I guess that could apply to many other things rather than being a murderer.

[HairOfTheDog]

If he is the killer, looks sure can be deceiving. I guess that could apply to many other things rather than being a murderer.

The photo surprised me too -- not what I expected the triple homicide suspect to look like. His attorney says he adamantly denies the charges. If he's the guy, he looks more the type to have had an obsession with one or more of the victims than to be a hitman, but you never can tell...

Anyway, I don't know what's going on with the processing of this suspect. I had to scrounge like crazy to get a verified photo of Mercado. He has a previous arrest on weapons charges and has just been arrested in a high-profile multiple murder -- why no accessible mug shot? It's unusual.

There are also no details as to why the suspect was in the hospital just after his arrest; just a confirmation today that the hospitalization was a result of an incident at the jail. I wonder if he tried to off himself or if someone else tried to off him?

Hope more details come out at Wednesday's arraignment -- the LE spokesperson at today's presser (Lt. Hastings) said that SDPD won't be releasing details to the public in regards to this ongoing investigation and what Chief Zimmerman called the "aggressive prosecution" of Mercado.

[HairOfTheDog]

"NOT GUILTY" PLEA ENTERED



Mercado was charged with three murders yesterday and pleaded "not guilty".

Prosecutors aren't sharing much of their evidence in the execution-style triple-murder case -- which Mercado's attorney finds "very frustrating"; his attorney called Mercado "a gun aficionado".

The D.A. has not decided yet whether to pursue the death penalty or Life Without Parole.

The reason Mercado was hospitalized last week is because he tried to OD on Tylenol.

Mercado is said to be despondent. He worked at a Target store. Still no word on whether Mercado had personal connections to any of the three murder victims.

Ref:
http://www.10news.com/news/arraignment-f...ble-motive

[HairOfTheDog]

This is such a strange case.



Since his arrest, it was revealed that, along with ballistics, DNA connected Mercado to the killings.

In September, he got a new attorney and was ordered to undergo psych evaluations because his attorney contended he was mentally incompetent to assist in his own defense.

In November, Judge Joseph P. Brannigan found Mercado not competent to stand trial and ordered he be treated at Patton State Hospital for three years or until he is found competent to assist in his own defense. Psychiatrists had diagnosed him as schizophrenic and severely depressed.

Search warrants released indicate that the SDPD strongly believed initially that more than one person carried out the slayings. The documents also note that police interviewed witnesses who met with Gianni Belvedere the day before the murders; one had sold him mariijuana and claimed the elder Belvedere brother bought about $100 worth a day. The other witness said she had sold him several Xanax tabs.

Whether police believed there was a possible drug-related motive is not clear, still. It's also not clear whether the accused knew the victims and whether police still suspect another person(s) was involved in the trip homicide. No motive of any kind has been presented.

I wonder if the psych stay is partly protective custody?

Sources:
Good timeline: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Mi...z3Xx5DUMBz
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/califo...91751.html
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/sep/...rder-case/

[username]

He sure has let himself go.

Definitely a strange case but if he is truly schizophrenic, there might not be any rational motive. The drugs? I dunno.

[HairOfTheDog]

He sure has let himself go.

Definitely a strange case but if he is truly schizophrenic, there might not be any rational motive. The drugs? I dunno.

It's so weird. Three years later, and it still seems like the whole story hasn't been told. In any case, Mercado spared the state the cost of a death penalty trial and the mandatory appeals of a capital conviction by pleading guilty today. The judge handed down three life sentences with no possibility of parole.

The latest:
A San Diego man who killed three people outside a Mission Valley mall on Christmas Eve in 2013 didn’t know his victims, a prosecutor said Thursday.

But that didn’t stop Carlo Mercado from shooting each of them in the head in what was described as a “road rage or carjacking” incident that turned deadly.

More than three years after the shootings, Mercado, 31, admitted in San Diego Superior Court that he killed the first of the victims — Gianni Belvedere — after arguing with him in the mall parking lot and then took his car.

When Mercado returned to the scene less than two hours later, he unexpectedly ran into Belvedere’s younger brother, Salvatore, and Ilona Flint, Gianni’s fiancée.

“They confronted me because I had Gianni Belvedere’s car,” the defendant admitted in a written statement.

Deputy District Attorney Brian Erickson said several theories about possible motives for the killings had circulated publicly over the years, and he took some time at the sentencing hearing to make one point clear: This was a random act of violence.

“Gianni, Salvatore and Ilona had nothing to do with their demise,” the prosecutor said. “This could have been any one of us in that parking lot. It literally is being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“I still have questions,” Judge Link said, referring to what occurred in the shopping mall parking lot the night of Dec. 23, 2013, and early the next morning.

“It’s just too bad that Mr. Mercado doesn’t wish to say everything,” Link said. “Maybe someday he will.”

Full story: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news...story.html