Mercado sentenced for murdering grandmother

By Linda Cicoira

When Anthony David Mercado was 25 years old, in January of 2024, he shot his grandmother to death at her Cape Charles home and then called 9-1-1, confirming to a dispatcher that the 73-year-old was dead as he had emptied the clip of his Glock 17 Gen5 9mm semi-automatic pistol into her.

On Monday, Judge Lynwood W. Lewis Jr., of Northampton Circuit Court, sentenced the now 27-year-old to a total of 77 years and four months in prison. He was given 60 years and four months for first degree murder and will serve just over 40 years with suspended time for all the charges. Mercado could have received life in prison for the murder. The active time handed down was the high end of the guidelines.

Mercado was plagued with mental illness, including schizophrenia, which typically features hallucinations and delusions, eccentric speech and behavior, and diminished emotional expression. He wore a bright orange jail jumpsuit, was handcuffed, and wore ankle constraints on Monday. The long curly locks of dark hair in his initial mugshot were cut before his jury trial, where he pleaded not guilty. He kept the shorter hair at sentencing.

When given a chance to speak, he leaned into a microphone at the defense table, hesitated for several moments, and finally said, “I’m ready to take responsibility. It’s such a tragedy and I regret everything to do with it…”

The victim, Jane Grigsby McKinley of Tazewell Avenue, called “Memaw” by Mercado during the trial, was described as a kind, elderly, but vibrant woman, full of life and active in her community. She was five feet-two-inches tall and weighed 97 pounds. Gruesome autopsy photos shown to the jury during the medical examiner’s testimony, disclosed she had 14 gunshot wounds that caused 27 holes in her body.

Her brutal death sent shockwaves through her community.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Jack Thornton referred to Cape Charles, where he also lives, as “a quiet, tranquil” town and “one of the top places in the south to go on vacation.”

Mercado moved in with McKinley a few months before her death. According to evidence, he lived with his stepfather before that and was kicked out. He had previously lived with his grandmother with the same unspecified result.

The defendant was given 60 years with all but 37 years and four months suspended for first-degree murder, three mandatory years for using a firearm in the murder, a 10-year suspended term for shooting inside an occupied dwelling, a suspended five-year term for shooting in commission of a felony, and 12-month suspended terms for reckless handling of a firearm and destruction of property.

He will be on five years of probation and 10 years of good behavior when and if he gets released. He was ordered to pay restitution of $22,171.02 for funeral expenses and damage to the house from the shooting.

Prosecutor Thornton asked for life in prison. The woman’s first cousin wanted the most he could possibly get. His mother, the victim’s daughter, said in an impact statement, that “she lost her mother (and) she doesn’t want to lose her son.”

Thornton complained that Mercado had no remorse nor had he taken responsibility for the death.

“When asked if he could change his actions that day,” Thornton said Mercado answered, “I would have left the house and gone to the beach.’ He advised he is a good person … He loved his family … He is not proud of what happened and wished he could have done more to not let it happen.”

Thornton said, “What he could have done was not kill his grandmother … the lives of the entire family have been impacted in the most negative way.”

Defense lawyer Patrick Bales noted how different people with addictions and those with mental illness are treated. The latter comes to disaster when “they stop treatment … and they spiral out. That’s a hard thing to understand … They think the issues are resolved. The mentally ill don’t understand it’s the medication helping.They won’t help when (they are) not taken. He has very serious issues with his mental health,” Bales said. “Whatever the sentence, he needs mental health help. That is the only way possible for him to be in society.”