Deltona Man Charged In Boyfriend's Murder

Date Added: May 16, 2020 5:13 pm

Andrew Gant
Office of Public Affairs & Media Relations

DELTONA MAN CHARGED IN BOYFRIEND’S MURDER

A Deltona man has been arrested in Hillsborough County on a charge of killing his boyfriend with a blunt object at their home in Deltona.

Overnight, detectives with the Volusia Sheriff’s Office Major Case Unit obtained a warrant charging Victor M. Mercado, 24 (DOB 10/11/1995), with second-degree murder. Mercado was already in custody in the Hillsborough County Jail on a charge of grand theft auto when he was arrested on the murder charge.

The victim, Vincent Patterson, 56, was discovered by his father Thursday afternoon at his home at 1479 Woffington Ave., Deltona. Patterson was found in his bed, unresponsive, and in an advancing stage of decomposition.  Responding deputies observed visible trauma to Patterson’s head and blood spatter on walls of the bedroom.  In addition, a note was found written on one of the bedroom walls.

The investigation revealed that two days earlier, in the early-morning hours Tuesday, Lake Mary police officers discovered Patterson’s vehicle crashed and abandoned on Interstate 4 in Seminole County.  Volusia deputies conducted an attempt to contact Patterson at his house that same morning, but no one answered the door.

Detectives investigating the homicide soon identified witnesses whose accounts helped piece together the timeline of events and help identify a possible person of interest in Patterson’s death.

It was learned that Mercado was Patterson’s boyfriend and had been living with Patterson at the house.  On Tuesday, after Patterson’s vehicle was found crashed and abandoned, Mercado reached out to a friend for a ride.  Mercado said he needed a ride because Patterson had allegedly kicked him out of the vehicle as they were traveling back to Deltona.  This friend would not help Mercado; however, Mercado showed up at her residence later that morning inexplicably driving an industrial-sized construction truck.  Mercado then told his friend he needed help getting rid of the construction truck because he had stolen it that morning.  The friend still refused to help Mercado, and this sequence of events was confirmed by the friend’s mother. 

Detectives learned the work truck was stolen around 5 a.m. Tuesday from The Briar Team in Sanford, and reported stolen to the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office. Around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Mercado was arrested while driving the stolen truck in Hillsborough County.

With Mercado in custody at the Hillsborough County Jail, Volusia detectives went there to interview him. During the interview, Mercado confessed to killing Patterson, who had just recently broken up with him. The murder happened in the early morning hours on Tuesday and began as Patterson slept. Mercado also admitted to writing the note found on Patterson’s bedroom wall in an effort to cover up his actions.  In addition to killing Patterson with a blunt object, trying to conceal his crime, and then stealing and crashing Patterson’s vehicle, Mercado also admitted to detectives that he stole the Briar Team work truck and then fled to Tampa. 

Mercado is being held without bond in Hillsborough County pending extradition back to Volusia. Sheriff’s detectives are continuing to investigate and execute search warrants this weekend, and no other records are available for release at this point.