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WILKES-BARRE — A Luzerne County judge has ordered the Wilkes-Barre Area School District and Children and Youth Services to release any and all records of homicide suspect Louisa Reyes to the district attorney’s office.

Reyes, 14, and Reynaldo Mercado, 32, are charged in the robbery and killing of 58-year-old Fred Boote.

Boote’s bloody and partially burned body was found inside his home on Donald Court in the early morning hours of Sept. 14 when a city police officer returning a loose dog discovered the scene.

Wilkes-Barre police detectives allege Reyes and Mercado made off with $25 and Boote’s cell phone.

Reyes and Mercado fled to West New York, N.J., where they were captured at the home of Mercado’s uncle on Sept. 15.

Detectives suspected Mercado was attempting to get to the Dominican Republic.

Judge Michael T. Vough last week ordered the school district and Children and Youth to release Reyes’ records to the district attorney’s office in preparation of an upcoming decertification hearing that has not been scheduled.

The school district was ordered to release Reyes’ attendance, disciplinary history and academic performance to prosecutors. She was a student at Meyers High School.

Reyes’ attorney, Frank T. McCabe, in November filed a motion seeking to decertify the adult charges against her, which would move her case to juvenile court for prosecution.

McCabe received Reyes’ school records and records from Children and Youth in February.

Detectives allege in court records Reyes’ mother, Carmen Cardy, had a relationship with Boote for several months, but he asked her and her children to move out in July. Soon after, they moved in with Mercado on Maffett Street in Wilkes-Barre.

During an interview with investigators, Reyes claimed Mercado became desperate for cash after losing a job. Mercado told Reyes he planned on committing burglaries to make money and suggested they ransacked Boote’s house, court records say.

Reyes led Mercado to Boote’s residence and helped him gain entry when she distracted Boote. Mercado allegedly stabbed Boote multiple times in a bedroom and used gasoline to burn the body but the fire burned out, according to court records.

On the day Boote’s body was found, city firefighters responded to a fire in a basement of a home on Maffett Street where detectives allege Mercado attempted to burn evidence linked to the killing.

Reyes is charged with murder of the second-degree and Mercado is charged with an open count of criminal homicide. They also face counts of robbery, arson, abuse of corpse and criminal conspiracy.

A pre-trial hearing is set for June 3 with a trial for Reyes and Mercado scheduled to begin July 29.

Mercado
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_Reynaldo-Mercado-1-1.jpg.optimal.jpgMercado

Reyes
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/web1_Louisa-Alexis-Reyes-1-1.jpg.optimal.jpgReyes

By Ed Lewis

[email protected]