A Filipino American who had been hiding out in the Philippines was convicted Thursday of four counts of first-degree murder by a Los Angeles jury.
Pierre Mercado, 38, the former leader of the Asian Boyz gang, was also convicted of five counts of attempted murder and one count each of kidnapping for robbery and kidnapping for extortion. He faces up to 200 years in prison when he is sentenced on August 24.
“Some say justice delayed is justice denied,” said Deputy District Attorney Hoon Chun, who prosecuted Mercado as well as his older brother Marvin Mercado in 2011. “I don’t happen to believe that. We got some justice today.”
Pierre Mercado was convicted of first-degree murder for the deaths of Cheng Peng, Paul Vu and Ben Liao on August 1, 1995. Mistaking the three men for members of a Taiwanese- based gang, three carloads of Asian Boyz gang members followed them as they left a cafe on Peck Road, and got on the westbound I-10 San Bernardino Freeway. The men were attacked near the Temple City Boulevard offramp in El Monte.
Mercado was also convicted of murder in the death of Tony Nguyen who was killed with a shotgun fired by one of the Mercado brothers’ accomplices.
Pierre Mercado and his older brother Marvin fled to the Philippines in 1996. In June 1999, while the Mercados remained in hiding, prosecutors tried and won convictions against seven members of Asian Boyz’s Van Nuys clique — Buntheon Roeung, Sothi Menh, David Evangelista, Roatha Buth, Son Thanh Bui, Ky Tony Ngo and Kimorn Nuth. All were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Mercado and his gang killed showed exceptional brutality in killing one of the witnesses and shooting the father of another witness at the front door of his own home. Both Mercado brothers were arrested by Philippine Immigration Authorities in Quezon City, Philippines in September of 2007 and extradited back to Los Angeles later that year. Both had been on the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list since 1997.
Marvin, who was known by his gang as “Shy Boy”, was sentenced in March 2011 to eight consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of eight murders.
Pierre Mercado, known by his former gang members as “Boo Boo”, will likely end his life in prison, said prosecutors.
Asian Boyz members comprised mostly Cambodian, Vietnamese, Filipino and other Southeast Asians living in the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys.
During the mid-1990s the gang committed 80 crimes ranging from murder, home invasions to extortion, mostly against immigrants. The gang was linked to over a dozen murders during an 18-month investigation between 1995-1996.
