A KILLER’S DOUBLE LIFE
David Meza stabbed his rich boyfriend to pay for life with his pregnant girlfriend.
ake Merendino seemed to be living the American dream. The 51-year-old Texas millionaire had just bought a luxury condo in Rosarito, Mexico, and was planning to celebrate his good fortune with expensive champagne at a romantic restaurant alongside his 23-year-old boyfriend, David Meza. So when Mexican police found Merendino’s body at the bottom of a ravine with more than 20 stab wounds and his throat cut just two days later, on May 2, 2015, his family was at a loss as to how a seemingly charmed life could have ended so brutally. “He was the kind of guy who would do anything for you,” says his cousin Bud Merendino. “We couldn’t think of anyone who would want to hurt him.”
Police didn’t have to look far. Authorities arrested Merendino’s boyfriend Meza for the murder, alleging he killed his lover so he could inherit his $US3 million estate, including the new $US273,000 oceanfront condo. The investigation further uncovered that Meza was living a shocking double life—and had a pregnant girlfriend at home. In February that girlfriend, Taylor Langston, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge for lying to authorities about Meza’s whereabouts on the night of the murder; she is serving a 21-month sentence. Her plea helped a San Diego jury convict Meza in May of Merendino’s murder. Though Meza maintains his innocence and his lawyers argued there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime, he is expected to be sentenced on Oct. 23.
Those close to Merendino say the Beaumont, Texas, millionaire’s generosity and trusting nature made him an easy mark. Adopted as a child, he used the vast fortune he inherited from his late parents, both Exxon Mobil employees, to enjoy life and lavish gifts on friends and family. He met Meza, who has reportedly starred in porn films, when he hired him as an escort through an online ad while holidaying in San Diego in June 2013—and was smitten by the “adventurous, young sports fan” who went by the porn name Mario Romo. “He bought him sports cars and motorcycles,” says Merendino’s friend Donna Armani Pineda. “David didn’t want for anything.”
It seems Meza wanted more. In the months before the murder, Merendino made Meza the beneficiary of his condo and wrote a will on hotel letterhead in December 2014 leaving him his fortune. “David didn’t just want a new car,” says Bud. “He wanted everything. And the only way to get it was to kill him.” At the same time Meza was romancing Merendino, he was also in a long-term romantic relationship with 20-year-old Langston, who claimed she believed her boyfriend was working as Merendino’s bookkeeper. According to investigators, Meza began complaining about his job in early 2015, telling Langston “It would all be over very soon.” Though Merendino’s friends were suspicious, they had no idea their friend was in any danger. “David was much younger and very handsome, so part of me worried that he was a gold digger,” says Merendino’s friend Bo Bendana. “But I never thought it would turn violent.”
As police closed in, Meza eventually admitted to having lured Merendino to the murder site with a story of being stranded on the road and of robbing Merendino of his condo key and stereo equipment. But he insisted he left him alive when he returned to San Diego that night. Authorities countered that Meza’s mobile-phone records placed him in Mexico until nearly 4 AM, giving him ample time to carry out the savage killing. For Merendino’s friends and family, his senseless and brutal death is haunting—with questions of what his life could have been. “He was one of the most giving people you’d ever meet,” says Sheila Stevens, Merendino’s cousin. Adds friend Chuck Hart: “I loved his love of life. He was so looking forward to the next chapter.”
J“Part of me worried he was a gold digger” —Bo Bendana