More than ten years after a San Bernardino man vanished without a trace, the woman he lived with is headed to prison. On Friday, March 27, 46-year-old Trista Ann Spicer was sentenced to 15 years after a jury found she killed her boyfriend in 2014 and hid his body beneath a backyard staircase, closing a case that sat unresolved for nearly a decade.
As reported by Tampa Free Press, Spicer was convicted of second-degree murder in November 2025 and received a 15-year term at a March 27 hearing. Jurors, according to the outlet, rejected her claim that she acted in self-defense.
How police uncovered the 'makeshift tomb'
Homicide detectives executed a search warrant on Aug. 23, 2022, at a home in the 1400 block of E. Davidson Street and made a discovery that turned the old missing-person case on its head. According to a press release from the San Bernardino Police Department, officers found a concealed storage compartment built beneath an outdoor stairway that held human remains.
The release states the remains were later identified as 42-year-old Eric Israel Mercado, who had been reported missing by family members in October 2014. What had once been a disappearance suddenly looked a lot more like a “makeshift tomb” behind the house.
The tip that turned the case
Reporting that reviewed court testimony says Spicer’s later boyfriend, Waylan Gentry, told investigators in 2022 that Spicer had confided she needed to "take care of something" before moving and that a body was buried under the stairs. Law & Crime reports that Gentry testified he went to the police after speaking with his mother, a conversation that ultimately led detectives to seek the warrant and search the property.
What Spicer told jurors
On the stand, Spicer told jurors that an argument in October 2014 spiraled out of control. She said she struck Mercado with a cast-iron skillet and stabbed him in the neck with a kitchen knife, insisting she acted in self-defense.
Prosecutors and witnesses painted a very different picture. According to testimony described by Tampa Free Press, they presented a conflicting timeline and weapon details, including claims that Mercado was struck while he slept and that his throat was cut. That gap between her story and the prosecution’s version became a central issue for the jury.
The jury ultimately rejected Spicer’s self-defense claim and found her guilty of second-degree murder in November 2025, according to reporting that reviewed court records and minutes from the trial. The verdict, followed by the 15-year sentence, brought formal closure to a long-running investigation that had started with a missing-person report.
A decade of searching
Mercado’s family did not let his disappearance quietly fade. They circulated missing-person posters and kept his case visible online after he vanished in October 2014. Investigators noted that relatives had reported him missing to law enforcement, according to the San Bernardino Police Department release.
When detectives finally uncovered his remains at the property in 2022, the missing-person case shifted into a homicide prosecution. With the sentence now in place, court records will show a conviction and a 15-year term for Spicer. Authorities say the outcome underscores how a single tip, combined with persistent detective work, can crack open even years-old disappearances and push them all the way to a jury’s verdict.
