Matthew Mercado (L) winks at camera before sentencing, (R) Jessica Lopez (images via News12 screengrab; Windsor Police Department)
A New York judge on Wednesday sentenced the ex-boyfriend and admitted killer of 36-year-old Newburgh substitute teacher Jessica Lopez to serve more than a decade in prison, calling the defendant a "sociopath." Matthew Mercado's fate was sealed not long after he was caught winking at News 12's camera on his way into the courthouse.
Orange County District Attorney David M. Hoovler said Wednesday that Mercado, 40, was sentenced to 16 to 19 years after pleading guilty roughly half a year ago to charges of second-degree manslaughter, second-degree burglary, and tampering with physical evidence.
Prosecutors said Mercado admitted last August that on Nov. 3, 2019 he gave the victim drugs in a motel room and didn't call for help even though it was obvious to him that Lopez could die if she did not receive emergency medical attention.
"At the time Mercado pled guilty to Manslaughter in the Second Degree, he admitted that on November 3, 2019, at approximately 5:00 AM, while he and Jessica Lopez were alone inside Room 33 of the Windsor Motel, he caused the death of Jessica Lopez by giving her a variety of illegal narcotics and drugs, which caused Jessica Lopez to have a severe adverse reaction, and that when he observed Jessica Lopez having that reaction he failed to obtain medical aid for her and instead kept her concealed inside the motel room where she died," prosecutors said. "Mercado also stated that at the time he saw Jessica Lopez having the reaction to the illegal drugs and failed to obtain medical treatment for her, he consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk that she could die from the drugs."
Prosecutors pointed out that the Empire State's Good Samaritan Law is such that Mercado wouldn't have faced drug charges had he gotten help for Lopez. However, hours before Lopez's death Mercado had also committed a burglary in a neighboring hotel room where three high school girls were staying.
"They reported that they were in bed and awoke to Mercado being present in the room," prosecutors said. "Mercado admitted stealing a handbag and bookbag from the students' room."
In addition, Mercado's sentence included two to four years for tampering with evidence by moving Lopez's body from the motel room to the trunk of her own car.
"Mercado admitted that he had wrapped Ms. Lopez's body in a sheet with tape and initially secreted Ms. Lopez underneath the platform bed in the motel room they had shared," prosecutors said.
At sentencing, Judge William DeProspo went so far as to call Mercado "a sociopath, a manipulator and a killer" when ordering him to prison.
The judge was reportedly joined in that condemnation by Lopez's surviving relatives, who appeared in court with the knowledge that Mercado had faced a second-degree murder charge in the case prior to the plea agreement. During the hearing, Lopez's father shouted and her brother Ernesto called Mercado "evil and demonic," according to News 12.
DA Hoovler similarly referred to Mercado as a "sociopath and a liar." The prosecutor reportedly said he believes Lopez was the victim of domestic violence, contrary to Mercado's explanation about how she died. Although Mercado confessed to dumping the victim's body behind a Price Chopper in Newburgh, investigators have never been able to find Lopez's remains.