A woman who killed her boyfriend and buried him in a makeshift tomb in southern California more than a decade ago has been jailed for 15 years.

Trista Spicer told a trial she killed Eric Mercado at her home in San Bernardino after he complained about the beans and meat she had cooked him.

Spicer said she then hid Mercado – who she claimed had a history of physically and verbally abusing her – under a concrete staircase in her backyard with help from a friend. A brick wall was then built to effectively entomb the corpse, which went undetected for years.

Mercado was killed in October 2014, with his concerned family reporting him missing at the time.

However, the 42 year-old’s body was only discovered in 2022, after the San Bernardino Police Department received a tip about human remains at the property. Upon obtaining a search warrant, officers entered the home and found the tomb.

Chad Holgate, a SBPD officer, said he noticed a slab of wood fixed to a doorway, beneath which lay a circular patch, The San Bernardino Sun reported. Mercado’s body was wrapped in an air mattress that had been cut open, the court heard.

Tiffany Montez, an SBPD detective, testified that Mercado’s nose and eye socket had been “obliterated.” A medical examiner said he suffered a blow to his head that would have killed him in seconds.

Spicer was arrested in September 2022 and subsequently charged with murder.

The trial heard that during the fatal altercation, Mercado had hurled the meal at his girlfriend and ordered her to sit naked on a couch, The San Bernardino Sun reported.

The court heard that when he then told her to fetch him coffee, Spicer headed to the kitchen and retrieved a skillet to strike him with before cutting his throat.

Spicer had claimed Mercado had fled the home following an argument, according to San Bernardino County District Attorney Senior Investigator Erick Bennett.

Mercado’s friends claimed during the trial that he had been a violent man, with Spicer saying she was too frightened of her ex-boyfriend to report abuse.

Spicer also testified she had overcome a six-year long addiction to meth before meeting Mercado at the beginning of 2014. Weeks into meeting him, Spicer says she relapsed after he offered her drugs. Mercado began to both verbally and physically abuse Spicer soon after, she told the court.

Mercado’s sister, Mahira Torres, described Spicer as “evil” as she addressed San Bernardino Superior Court on Friday.

“You took my brother’s life, and you shattered ours,” Torres said, per The San Bernardino Sun. She went on to describe her late brother as a loving father to two children.

Torres added that life got “harder and harder” for her family during the years in which Mercado was missing.

“My family went eight years trying to get answers, and it seemed like everybody knew about it except his close family,” she said.

In a statement read by a victim advocate, Mercado’s mother Guadalupe Plascencia said she felt pity for Spicer.

“You will never be able to understand the enormous pain that you have caused – the bitterness that overcomes my mind,” Plascencia said.

“And you will never understand it, because you lack feelings, sensitivity and empathy.”

Spicer, 46, was handed a 15-year prison sentence, after being convicted of second-degree murder in November, according to court records obtained by The LA Times. Spicer’s attorneys have filed an appeal against the sentence, according to the records.