Raul Renato Castro To Be Charged As Adult In Sodomy/Drowning Death Of Alex Christopher Mercado

Posted on November 4, 2009

The 14-year-old suspect, Raul Renato Castro, will be charged as an adult authorities said for the murder of 4 year-old Alex Christopher Mercado, whose body was found stuffed into a clothes dryer. Read more on the horrific death of little Alex Christopher Mercado below.

District Attorney Elizabeth A. Egan says Raul Renato Castro was charged with special circumstances, including murder during a child molestation, sodomy, kidnapping and murder of a witness to prevent testimony.

A 14 year-old is not eligible for the death penalty or a life sentence without parole under California law. If Castro is found guilty he will received no more than 32 years to life plus 15 years.

The horrific incident happened on Friday afternoon when Alex Christopher Mercado’s parents realized their little boy, who had been playing outside their house, was missing.

The little boy’s parents called police, who began to search the neighborhood and nearby parks and soon the FBI was called in to help in the search.

On Saturday, police went door to door and in the house next door to the Mercado’s police found the little boy’s body stuffed inside a clothes dryer in a closet. The autopsy report shows that Alex Christopher Mercado had drowned.

On Friday afternoon Alex, 4, was playing in his yard when Raul Renato Castro lured the boy inside his house while no one else was home. Castro then molested and sodomized the four year-old boy and then drowned him so he couldn’t tell anyone. He hid Alex’s body in a dryer in a closet.

Castro, 14, was arrested and booked into the juvenile justice center.

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