A 44-year-old woman in California is heading to trial for allegedly battering her ex-boyfriend to death with a frying pan, leaving his nose and eye socket "obliterated," according a report.
Trista Ann Spicer is accused of smashing a frying pan into the head of 42-year-old Eric Israel Mercado, her ex-boyfriend at the time of the murder, before slitting his throat with a box cutter.
On Friday, San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge William Jefferson Powell ordered that Spicer, who has been in police custody since her arrest in 2022, be tried on one count of murder with an enhancement for use of a deadly weapon in the killing of Mercado, according to Law & Crime.
According to San Bernadino police, Mercado had been missing since 2014, until detectives with the San Bernadino Police Department recieved a tip about human remains being hidden on a nearby property. A search warrant was immediately issued for a property in the 1400 block of E. Davidson Street, where a "makeshift tomb" was discovered on the property.
Investigators determined Spicer was responsible for Mercado's death based on the evidence collected during the investigation, police said, and she was taken into custody on September 2, 2022, in Yucaipa, California.
Spicer's hearing on Friday centered around the testimony of her most recent boyfriend, Waylan Gentry, who confirmed that he was the one who went to police with information regarding Mercado's whereabouts, according to Law & Crime.
Gentry claimed that Spicer spoke to him about moving from California to Illinois, where she had family, but had one important matter to address before she could leave.
The task he revealed was to help Spicer "get rid" of her dead ex-boyfriend.
"I didn't know what she meant," Gentry said, according to court documents reviewed by the outlet.
"She said he was buried under the stairs. I did not believe her."
After looking to his mother for advice, Gentry decided to do the right thing by contacting the authorities.
Upon searching the home, police found a hidden storage compartment that was about 8 feet wide, 6 feet high, and 3 feet deep.
Mercado's body was found in the compartment wrapped inside a sliced air mattress.
Perhaps the most gruesome detail comes from the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on the victim.
The medical official told police that Mercado's nose and eye socket appeared to have been "obliterated" and would have left him dead "within seconds."
