Nina Mercado, 28, will continue serving a four year prison term for her role in a 2006 North State Street shooting incident, as a result of an appellate court decision. The Third District Court of Appeals, headquartered in Lima, issued a 27-page opinion upholding Mercado’s convictions for inciting to violence and aggravated riot, along with firearm specifications.
Mercado, was one of seven people who were sentenced to prison out of a May 2006 shooting on North State Street. Mercado, who was not the shooter, was found guilty by a Marion jury following a three day trial held in October, 2006.
Mercado appealed her conviction to the Lima based court claiming that there was insufficient evidence to support her convictions, that her counsel was ineffective, that her trial was unfair, and that multiple errors occurred in her case.
By a 2-1 vote, with former Marion County Common Pleas Judge Richard Rogers dissenting, the appellate court rejected all of Mercado’s arguments. In his dissenting opinion Rogers argued that there was insufficient evidence to convict Mercado.
Mercado remains in custody at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville. She is not due to be released until Sept. 2010.
Mercado was one of seven individuals prosecuted out of the incident which was took place North State Street Multiple neighbors called the police, who arrived after several shots were fired, one of which struck a participant. All seven were convicted and sent to prison.
It was later determined that Shonte Boswell, 28, formerly of Marion was the shooter. Boswell pleaded guilty to felonious assault, and is currently incarcerated in the Belmont Correctional Institution, serving a seven year prison sentence.
