The Mission Valley Mall Murders

Late on December 23, 2013, Carlo Mercado was stranded near the Westfield Mission Valley mall in San Diego when his motorcycle failed. Outside Macy’s he shot twenty-four-year-old Gianni Belvedere, a stranger to him, put the body in the trunk of Gianni’s dark green Toyota Camry, and drove the car away. Gianni was due to pick up his fiancée, Ilona Flint, 22, after her shift at a mall shoe store. When he didn’t answer, she called his brother Salvatore, 22, who came to help.

About 1:15 a.m. on December 24, Mercado came back to the parking lot and shot Ilona and Sal in the head. Ilona died at the scene, and Sal died in the hospital three days later. For weeks Gianni’s fate was unknown. On January 17, 2014, his car was found at a Riverside shopping center, about ninety miles north, with his body in the trunk. Mercado had put fake plates on the car and used Febreze to cover the odor.

On January 18, 2014, Mercado was stopped at a checkpoint near Camp Pendleton with guns and a homemade silencer. His DNA was later found on the Camry’s gas cap, and on June 20, 2014, he was arrested for the murders. On January 12, 2017, he pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to three consecutive life terms without parole.