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Gun linked to deaths of brothers, fiancee

Carlo Mercado, right, is accused of killing Ilona Flint and Salvatore Belvedere, both 22, and Belvedere's older brother, Gianni, 24. At left is his former attorney, Gary Gibson.
(John Gastaldo/U-T San Diego/Zuma)

Bullets from same gun killed 2 victims at mall, third whose body was found in Riverside, witnesses say

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A man accused of fatally shooting three people, two of whom were found outside a Mission Valley shopping center on Christmas Eve, was stopped at a highway checkpoint in January with weapons and a homemade silencer.

One of those weapons was a .22-caliber pistol, the same kind of firearm authorities believe was used to kill Salvatore Belvedere and Ilona Flint, both 22, who were shot in the mall parking lot on Dec. 24.

Gianni Belvedere, 24, was considered a missing person until his body was found a few weeks later in the trunk of his car in Riverside. He and Flint were engaged to be married.

San Diego Police idetective Tim Norris testified in the case of Carlo Gallopa Mercado and looked to a photo of the scene of the murder of Flint and Salvatore Belvedere. — John Gastaldo
San Diego Police idetective Tim Norris testified in the case of Carlo Gallopa Mercado and looked to a photo of the scene of the murder of Flint and Salvatore Belvedere. — John Gastaldo
(John Gastaldo)

According to testimony Tuesday in San Diego Superior Court, bullets recovered from each of the victims were all fired from the same weapon.

Prosecutors say Carlo Mercado, 29, was the triggerman.

After the first day of a three-day hearing in San Diego Superior Court, it remains unclear whether investigators have identified a motive in the case. But it appears from the testimony that drugs may have been a factor.

Flint had metabolites of heroin in her system at the time of her death, according to a deputy medical examiner. Several pills — Xanax and hydrocodone — were found in her purse.

Although Gianni Belvedere’s body was badly decomposed when it was found on Jan. 17, testing of his tissues revealed that he had consumed alcohol, opiates, codeine and Xanax. A police detective testified there was evidence that the older Belvedere had tried to obtain heroin hours before his brother and fiancee were killed.

Salvatore Belvedere, who had recently returned from a months-long stint in detox, had no alcohol or common drugs of abuse in his system.

At the end of the preliminary hearing, Judge Eugenia Eyherabide will be asked to decide whether prosecutors presented enough evidence for Mercado’s case to proceed to trial. Mercado faces three counts of murder in what could become a death penalty case.

Detective Tim Norris testified Tuesday that Flint called 911 shortly after 1 a.m. on Christmas Eve after leaving her job at a shoe store in the Westfield Mission Valley mall. Phone records indicate that she tried repeatedly to reach her fiance, Gianni, but he did not answer.

She then made calls to three hospitals and the county jail.

She called Salvatore Belvedere to pick her up, who apparently obliged. They were gunned down as they sat in his car.

“Ow, ow... I think I’ve been shot,” Flint said to a 911 dispatcher in a recording that was played in court. A moment later she confirmed that yes, she had been hit.

Then she stopped talking.

“Hello? Hello? Hello?” repeated the dispatcher, trying to get the woman to respond.

But there was no reply.

Although Flint does not speak another word on the recording, other sounds can be heard as it continues for another 10 to 15 minutes, the detective said.

“It sounds, basically, like someone struggling to breathe,” he told a judge.

Norris said four shots were fired into the car, likely by someone standing outside the driver’s side window. There was no gunshot sound in the recording played in court.

Salvatore Belvedere’s cellphone and car keys were missing, the detective said.

Two witnesses told police they saw a man walking away from the car the morning of the killings in the mall parking lot. The person they described had curly hair and was possibly black. Mercado’s hair is straight and his ethnicity is listed in jail records as Filipino.

The witnesses called the detectives later to say they had seen Gianni Belvedere’s photo on television when he was still considered a missing person, and that they believed he was the person they saw in the parking lot.

Testimony in the case is expected to continue Wednesday.

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