Jurors being asked to recommend whether a man should face a death sentence for killing a former girlfriend and two of her relatives during an early morning shooting rampage in Hawaiian Gardens heard recordings of 911 calls in which the woman and her younger brother pleaded for help.
One day after convicting Joseph Mercado of three counts of first-degree murder and numerous other charges, a jury Friday in Norwalk heard a recording of a 911 call made by Serena Tarin shortly before she, her father and her brother were shot to death May 6, 2010.
“I need an officer here. My ex-boyfriend’s here and he’s not welcome here … He has no business being here … I think he’s trying to get inside,” she reported in the call made at 3:41 a.m. that day.
“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,” she said frantically after popping sounds can be heard in the background. “Please hurry. Oh my God, please hurry.”
The 911 operator asked, “What was that noise?” with Tarin responding,”I don’t know” and later informing them of Mercado’s name and age when asked who he was.
Tarin is later heard saying, “Joseph, don’t do this, please don’t do this … the baby.”
Both sides stipulated that the 23-year-old woman’s phone was later found damaged.
As the recording was being played in court, Mercado sat with his hands covering his face and appeared to be crying after jurors heard the recording.
Jurors also heard a recording of a 911 call made by the woman’s 19-year- old brother, Alfred “A.D.” Tarin, shortly before he was killed.
“You’ll hear A.D. take his last breath,” Deputy District Attorney Robert Villa had told jurors earlier about the 911 call.
Emmanuel Rodriguez said he recognized the voice pleading for help as that of Alfred Tarin, his wife’s brother.
“Please hurry, please help, please!” Alfred Tarin could be heard pleading in the recorded 911 call in which he reported gunshots.
A 911 operator could later be heard repeatedly asking if he was OK as a woman screamed in the background.
Rodriguez — who saw the bodies of his sister-in-law and brother-in-law after the shooting — said he initially had hope that his brother-in-law might have survived.
He said he has since had to be the sole provider for his extended family since the tragedy that he said “changed everything.”
Rodriguez said he and his wife have adopted his sister-in-law’s son, who was about 8 1/2 months old at the time. He called it an expensive and emotional process, saying he had to begin with proceedings to strip Mercado of his rights as a father two days after the killings.
He noted that the family still lives in the home — part of which was built by his slain father-in-law, Alfredo Tarin, 53.
Alfredo Tarin’s widow, Lucianna, who was shot six times in the shoulder and wears her arm in a sling featuring three hummingbirds, told jurors that she cannot hold her grandchildren the way she wants to any longer.
She said she kept asking her husband if he was OK after the shooting and that he told her that “it hurts.” She said she never got to talk to him again after he was rushed from their home.
She clutched a tissue and wiped her face as she listened to a recording of her husband speaking with investigators before he was taken to the hospital.
“That was my husband,” Lucianna Tarin said.
The woman told jurors that her daughter and Mercado had been engaged at one point but that her daughter later called it off.
Under cross-examination by defense attorney Daniel Nardoni, she said she was aware that her daughter had tried to get her infant son’s last name changed from Mercado to Tarin shortly after the baby was born.
She said Mercado was not present at the baby’s baptism, saying that she did not know if her daughter had invited him.
Along with three counts of first-degree murder, jurors found true the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders, murder while lying in wait and arson during the commission of a murder.
Mercado also was found guilty of three counts of attempted murder and one count each of first-degree burglary with a person present, shooting at an inhabited dwelling, child abuse and arson of an inhabited structure.
Authorities said shortly after the crime that Mercado was involved in a child custody dispute with Serena Tarin and that he tried to set the home on fire.
Mercado then broke into the back of the home and opened fire with an assault rifle, killing the three and wounding two others, including Lucianna Tarin, according to prosecutors.
About a half-dozen other family members escaped, with some hiding on the roof.
Mercado was shot by a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy as he emerged from the home that morning. He has remained jailed without bail since then.
The trial’s penalty phase is set to continue Monday.