Trista Ann Spicer, who said she killed her boyfriend in self-defense after months of abuse and concealed his body in what police described as a makeshift tomb in her San Bernardino backyard for eight years, was convicted of second-degree murder on Monday, Nov. 10. Jurors also found true a sentencing enhancement that Spicer used a deadly weapon to kill 42-year-old Eric Mercado. In this case, the weapon was a cast-iron skillet.
Trista Ann Spicer testified on Monday, Oct. 27, that she killed her boyfriend in self-defense at her home in San Bernardino in 2014, telling jurors hearing her murder trial that she smashed his skull with a two-handed blow of a cast-iron skillet and sliced his throat with a knife he had stabbed her with a few minutes earlier as he threatened to kill her. The force of the blows broke the pan's handle, said Spicer, 46.