A 34-year-old Puna man was sentenced Wednesday to three years probation for a home invasion and sex assault that occurred almost 15 years ago in Hilo.
Hilo Circuit Judge Greg Nakamura also sentenced John Douglas Mercado Jr. to jail time already served. Mercado spent more than three years behind bars awaiting trial.
In a deal with prosecutors, Mercado pleaded no contest in June to third-degree sex assault and second-degree burglary. Both are class C felonies punishable by up to five years in prison. Mercado originally was charged with impersonating a police officer, first-degree burglary, first-degree robbery, kidnapping, four counts of first-degree sex assault, three counts of third-degree sex assault, and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
A 27-year-old woman told police a man identified himself as a police officer to gain entry to her Olona Street apartment on Nov. 11, 2000. Once inside, the intruder reportedly threatened the woman at gunpoint, demanded money, raped her and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash.
The case went cold, but Mercado was indicted Dec. 15, 2010, after the FBI’s Combined DNA Indexing System pointed to him as the suspect, police said after the indictment. Capt. Randall Medeiros, then-commander of the Hilo Criminal Investigation Division, said at the time it was the first Big Island case solved by the federal DNA database.
Deputy Public Defender Michael Ebesugawa said after three years of incarceration, Mercado “consented to a plea agreement in this case despite the presence of factual and legal defenses.”
“The complainant described her attacker in detail as being older, short, with salt-and-pepper hair, a description that does not fit the 20-year-old Mercado at the time,” Ebesugawa told the judge. “In the ensuing investigation, the complainant made numerous misidentifications of her assailant, with the police and the prosecution even going so far as charging a separate individual, not Mr. Mercado, with the offense.”
Ebesugawa noted that Mercado consistently has denied being the assailant. He added that among three mental health professionals appointed to determine his client’s fitness for trial, “not one … indicated that Mr. Mercado presented a danger to the public.”
Mercado declined to address the court during sentencing.
Other terms of Mercado’s sentence include $2,745.86 restitution to the state’s Crime Victim Compensation Commission, registration as a sex offender, sex offender treatment, no contact with any unsupervised minors except his children, no drugs or alcohol and random testing for drugs or alcohol.
The victim since has returned to her native South Korea and was not present in court.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.