The attorney for a South Bay man accused of killing his boyfriend in Mexico told a federal jury Tuesday there was no physical evidence, such as DNA, blood, fingerprints or footprints linking him to the crime.
However, David Enrique Meza, 26, was not suspected in the May 2, 2015, slaying of Jake Merendino, 52, until later and a search of his apartment and belongings a month later produced no trace evidence.
Attorney Reuben Cahn told the eight woman, four man jury it would have been very difficult for Meza by himself to drag the 310-pound body of Merendino to a ravine off a highway near Rosarito, Mexico. Merendino was 6’4″ tall.
Meza’s girlfriend and now wife, Taylor Langston, 22, has pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in providing a false alibi for Meza. She was in Mexico that night but was believed to be in a different location. She was also pregnant at the time.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexandra Foster played a portion of a cell phone call Meza placed to Langston in which he said he felt terrible and remorseful after doing something bad, but he didn’t specify what it was he did.
Foster described Meza as living “a double life” in which he was gay with Merendino and straight with Langston, with whom he was engaged at the time. She quoted Meza as saying Merendino was his “sugar daddy.”
The trial before U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Miller is expected to last three weeks. Meza remains in the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center without bail and has pleaded not guilty.
Meza met Merendino online in July, 2013 when Meza was 23. Merendino gave Meza a new red motorcycle as a Christmas gift in 2014.
Merendino and Meza were staying at Bobby’s By the Sea Hotel in Mexico May 1, 2015. Merendino got a call from someone who was stuck on a road and he left at 1 a.m. May 2 to help him, according to a hotel employee.
Merendino drove there in his Range Rover SUV, and it is alleged Meza stabbed him 22 times including slashing his throat. Jurors saw photos of bloodstains on the SUV and the heavy blood trail in which the body was dragged about 20 feet and dumped in the ravine.
Jurors also saw the one page handwritten will that says “I leave everything to David Meza” that was written on stationery from the Hercor Hotel in Chula Vista where the two stayed in 2014.
“His feelings of remorse don’t stop him from trying to collect Jake’s money,” said Foster, who noted that Meza submitted the will to a Texas probate court.
Merendino had previously drawn up a will in 1998 with an attorney in Texas. Foster said Meza wanted Merendino’s condominium, and in order to get it, “Jake has to die.”
Cahn told jurors that Meza crossed into the U.S. at 3:57 a.m. and showed photos and a video of that. Cahn said there was no blood on him or the motorcycle and the border employee would have noticed it if it appeared Meza had been in a struggle.
Cahn said prosecutors sought to portray him as “a criminal mastermind,” but in reality he is “a bumbling David Meza who left this circumstantial evidence … and creates a trail of breadcrumbs leading to him.”
The reason the jurisdiction is federal is because Meza is charged with killing a U.S. citizen in Mexico. He is also charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice with Langston which happened in San Diego.
The first witness was Rosarito Police Officer Jose Corona, who was the first at the scene to discover Merendino’s abandoned SUV and the blood trail in the early morning hours. Corona said special equipment was used along with a gurney to retrieve the body.
Isidro Magana, the manager for Bobby’s by the Sea, testified Meza returned to get his belongings and he let him into Merendino’s room to retrieve them.
Magana said it was not obvious that Merendino and Meza was a couple because they arrived separately. He said the hotel has since changed some of its policies and security as a result of the murder. The crime scene is about a five minute drive from the hotel.
