sweet_misery
Active Member
Gustavo Mercado-Murillo
MCMINNVILLE — A judge in Yamhill County has sentenced an illegal immigrant to what’s likely to be a life term in prison for the sexual abuse of preteen children.
Gustavo Mercado-Murillo pleaded no contest Friday to eight felony charges involving three boys and two girls younger than 10. The charges included sodomy, rape and sexual penetration with a foreign object.
Prosecutors believe there were at least twice that many victims from four different families.
Mercado is 31. Judge Cal Tichenor sentenced him to 75 years without the possibility of early release.
His lawyer says Mercado understood there was enough evidence to convict him but does not believe he committed a crime.
The convict has kidney disease and undergoes dialysis procedures that cost about $300,000 a year.
Prosecutor Erin Greenawald said he tortured his victims in unspeakable ways.
“On the spectrum of horrible, this case is on the outer edge,†she said.
Mercado’s wife, pregnant with the couple’s fourth child, sobbed when defense attorney Janmarie Dielschneider explained the judge’s lengthy sentence.
Through an interpreter, Mercado denied he had actually committed the crimes he pleaded no contest to and said the people who support him know that.
Dielschneider said Mercado understood that pleading no contest was the same as pleading guilty and that there would have been enough evidence for a jury to convict him of more counts.
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=116125&sid=4&fid=1