Gay porn star David Enrique Meza, 27, was sentenced on Monday to life in prison
A male adult film star has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in the murder of his wealthy older boyfriend in a bizarre plot that spanned the US border with Mexico.
Gay porn star David Enrique Meza, 27, was sentenced on Monday to life in prison plus 20 years by a federal judge in San Diego in the 2015 murder of 52-year-old Texas millionaire Jake Merendino.
Meza was convicted in May of one count of foreign domestic violence resulting in murder and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice.
His former girlfriend Taylor Marie Langston, 22, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct for lying to the FBI about the murder and is currently serving a one year and nine month sentence in federal prison.
‘The Merriam dictionary defines ‘heinous’ as hatefully or shockingly evil, abominable,’ US District Judge Jeffrey T. Miller said at Monday’s sentencing, according to People.
‘This murder was shockingly evil — excessively so,’ the judge said.
The twisted plot dates back to 2013, when the porn star Meza met the millionaire Merendino through a gay escort service website while the victim was living in Houston, and the two became romantically involved.
David Enrique Meza, 25, and Taylor Marie Langston, 20 (pictured together in a Facebook snap), from San Diego, are accused of stabbing 52-year-old Jake Clyde Merendino to death and dumping his body in a Mexican ravine
Loving son: Merendino, a wealthy retiree from Texas is pictured in this undated photo with his elderly mother
Merendino was left a large inheritance by his parents, who had both worked for ExxonMobil, but made some extra money by flipping houses. He used his money to travel around the world and also invested in art.
Unbeknownst to Merendino, his younger boyfriend Meza was leading a double life.
He had met his girlfriend Langston in 2011, when she was 16, and by the spring of 2015 she was pregnant and the two were engaged to marry.
Langston had no idea about Meza’s other life as a gay gigolo and porn star, and thought he worked as an accountant for Merendino, she has said.
Meanwhile, Merendino was showering his young gigolo boyfriend with lavish gifts and presents.
On April 29 of that year, the two men rented a car and drove across the border to Mexico, so that Merendino could finalize a deal on a $300,000 property at the upscale oceanfront development Palacio del Mar, according to FBI documents.
Some of the older man’s friends have said his relationship may have persuaded him to retire full-time across the border in the luxury complex.
When they arrived, they found that the condo was not yet ready, so they drove back across the border to the US and checked into the Hercor Hotel in Chula Vista, San Diego.
Meza cradles his dog as he walks along a beach. He faces life in prison if convicted of his role in the stabbing
Merendino was visiting Mexico so he could finalize a deal on a luxury condo at the Palacio del Mar oceanfront complex (pictured left and right). He was hoping to retire full time there
The following morning, the two men headed back into Mexico – Merendino in his Range Rover with Meza following behind on his motorcycle, a 2014 Christmas gift from the victim.
They checked into Bobby’s by the Sea hotel across the border, where Merendino was seen at the lobby between 7pm and 8pm on May 1, asking for a bottle opener.
At 10.30pm, guests claim they heard a motorbike leave the hotel. Only Meza had such a vehicle with him. He was caught on CCTV entering the US half an hour later.
Later that night, Merendino left the hotel at 1am, telling a security guard he had to go to help a friend who was stranded on the road.
His body was found shortly after 3.30am that morning, May 2, in a ravine only five minutes away from the hotel.
The rich Texas retiree had been stabbed multiple times, with his throat slashed so severely he was nearly decapitated. The body was dumped in a ravine beside a highway between Rosarito and Ensenada in Mexico, less than 20 miles from the US border.
No cameras showed Meza returning to Mexico after he entered the US late on May 1.
However, FBI files state that he was seen entering the US once more at 3.57am on May 2.
Meza and Merendino checked into Bobby’s by the Sea hotel (pictured) in Mexico on May 1, where Merendino was seen at the lobby between 7pm and 8pm, asking for a bottle opener
Meza and Langston (pictured) were both convicted of lying to investigators about the plot. But Langston claims she was duped by Meza as well, and had no foreknowledge of the murder
Roughly 25 minutes later, Langston – driving a black SUV with no license plates – was seen at the same entry point before crossing back into the US.
At 7pm that night, the pair returned to the Mexican hotel Bobby’s by the Sea in the black SUV Langston had been spotted in earlier.
According to hotel staff, Meza claimed he had to pick up personal items from the room he had been sharing with Merendino.
The rich Texan’s $15,000 Rolex watch, iPhone, iPad and laptop were all later found to be missing.
Days after Merendino’s body was found, an attorney in Texas – who had drawn up the 52-year-old’s will in 1998 – filed probate paperwork.
However, Meza, through his own attorneys, then contested it, allegedly producing a handwritten will from three months before the murder, which stated he was the only heir to Merendino’s estate.
Said to have been written by Merendino on December 21, 2014, Meza was listed as the victim’s sole heir in the two-sentence will scribbled on the stationary of a California hotel.
Said to have been written by Merendino on December 21, 2014, Meza was listed as the victim’s sole heir in the two-sentence will scribbled on the stationary of a California hotel
Langston was heavily pregnant at the time of the murder and her baby was born soon after
Langston pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and is serving one year and nine months
As investigators became suspicious of the victim’s younger boyfriend and his secret pregnant fiancee, Meza and Langston attempted to throw them off the trail with a bogus alibi.
When interviewed by police about Merendino’s death, Meza claimed he called him on the night of the murder, and the pair arranged to meet at the exact spot the body would later be found.
When Langston was interviewed, she said she crossed into Mexico on May 1 to visit Meza’s friend ‘Joe’.
She said they sat at Joe’s table for four hours, without eating, drinking or watching TV, and then returned home.
However ‘Joe,’ identified as Jose Aguilera by the FBI, said he hadn’t seen the pair in a year and they had never been to his home in Tijuana.
He also told agents that Meza had called him a week before he met with them, pleading with him to lie to police.
Eventually, when cell phone tower data placed Meza within feet of the crime scene, he said he’d lured his older boyfriend to the roadside to get the key to his condo in order to steal stereo equipment, but claimed he’d taken the key and left Merendino alive.
The pair were arrested and charged – Meza with masterminding the murder and Langston with lying to the police.
Prosecutors said the pair thought they would inherit Merendino’s $3million estate along with his $273,000 condo with an oceanfront view
Langston’s baby was born later that year. She claimed to be a victim herself, with no idea about a murder plot.
‘There was physical emotional and sexual abuse,’ her lawyer Don Levine told People.
‘She thought this was the love of her life, her forever partner. She had no idea he was prostituting himself or starring in gay porn films.’
Langston is currently incarcerated at FCI Victorsville and is due to be released on December 26, 2018.
On Monday, at Meza’s sentencing, Judge Miller explained his reasoning for for the life sentence.
‘If we try to visualize what happened, we visualize blow, after blow, after blow, after blow, after slash, after slash, after slash, after blow, and repeat another three times,’ he said.
‘One can’t even imagine the torture and torment Mr. Merendino experienced.’