Speaker 1: H a wall Street line, shackle change, Oh someome gird,
it's calling my name. There is no mercy and it's
been a tentery juice as the huge stream game Rango three, come.
Speaker 2: Here be by me to die inside these walls, inside
the wild.
Speaker 1: And went no girl as.
Speaker 3: I'm hey everyone, and welcome back to Bloody Angola, a
podcast one d and forty two years in the making,
the complete story of America's bloodiest prison. I'm Jim Chapman,
and we are back with another episode in the Executions
Commence series. Now, last week we brought you into the
case of Jesse Hoffman. In this week, we're bringing you
into the case of Christopher Sepulvido. Now, all of the
stuff that we talk about on Bloody Angola can be
hard to here, but this one is just an awful case.
And I'm just going to start off in September of
nineteen ninety when Christopher Sepulvido started dating Yvonne Mercer. The
two had met in September of nineteen ninety when Yvonne
was working at Walmart as a cashier. This was in
West Monroe, Louisiana, which is on the far northern part
of the state of Louisiana, and Yvonne had been separated
from her husband. At the time, she was a struggling
mother right she had a four year old son, his
name was Wesley, and she was seemingly just trying to
get by in life, kind of starting over. And Christopher Sepulvido,
he was really laying on the charm with Yvonne, and
early on in the dating relationship, he appeared to be
a great guy. She would tell family and friends that
he treated her better than she had ever been treated
in her entire life. And athough Oh, Christopher Sepulvido was
much older than Yvonne. He was forty eight, she was
twenty six at this time. He appeared to possess the
stability she was looking for in a future husband and
stepfather for her son, Wesley Allen Mercer, who went by
Alan now. At that time, she was living with her
parents after her separation, and I'm sure like most people
at that age, she's looking for a way out of
her parents' house. So in short order, just four months
into the relationship, in January of nineteen ninety one, despite
her family's objections, she moves to Mansfield Louisiana to live
with Christopher Sepulvido and his mother. What she didn't know
was that Sepulvido he had a very disturbing past. And
this is the day's before the Internet, y'all. There was
no Facebook out there to research people or websites. Everything
was really based on trust. You had to kind of
rely on what people would tell you about who they were.
He had been previously investigated twice before for abuse and
neglect of a child from another family. DeSoto Sheriff Detective
Tony Morris said that the abuse did not involve serious
injuries or death and that Supulvido was never charged in
the case. Even State Child Protective Services refused to release
the date or identities of those involved, and the sheriff
went on to say he was investigated several years ago
on the allegation of child abuse, but no charges were
ever brought against him. We found another investigation had been
done with the same results. And of course all of
this came out after the incident that I'm about to
tell you about took place. So Supulvido was also previously
arrested on a battery charge. A former girlfriend filed those
charges against Supulvido, but they were later dropped. And the
point of all that is to paint a picture of
this ain't a nice guy at all and he liked
to beat on women. Just a horrible human being in
my opinion. Now, once he managed to get Yvonne away
from her family, his true colors started to show around
her as well. It wasn't long before he began drinking
heavily and physically abusing Yvonne. It got so bad, in fact,
that on May tenth of nineteen ninety one, just five
months after moving in with Supulvido, Yvonne left him and
moved back to live with her parents. As is common
with a lot of these abuse cases, Sepulvido managed to
talk his way back into her life and sometime around
early July, she moves back in with Sepulvido, but this
time she leaves her son Alan back with her parents,
and again, as is so common with abuse, the abuse
started up again and Yvonne leaves Supulvido yet again, but
returns again to Supulvido, this time taking Allan with her.
And it was at this time that this asshole begins
abusing Alan instead of Yvonne, with the abuse gradually escalating
to both physical and verbal abuse. It was also during
this time that the couple had an infant son. So
on March fifth of nineteen ninety two, Sepulvido marries Yvonne
and the couple continues to live at Supolvido's mother's house
with their children. Now here's the warning, it's about to
get really bad and really descriptive. The day after the wedding,
this is on March sixth of nineteen ninety two, Alan
comes home from school and he had soiled his pants,
so they punish him for this. Yvonne did not allow
her son to have dinner that night, and she spanked
him for this in Sepulvido, on that first time that
Alan sold his pants, he ties a noose to a
ceiling fan and threatens to hang Alan by the neck
and even told Alan to count while standing on a
chair with one foot. This is a six year old child.
Sepulvido then uses a belt to whip Alan and also
shoved the boy's head into a toilet bowl. During the
second and third time that Alan defecated in his pants,
again a six year old boy. On March seventh, the
next day, the abuse continued, Alan was starved for another day.
After Sepulvido instructed his wife not to feed her son.
Alan was hit by his mother and got his hair pulled,
and the couple forced Alan to sleep on a small trunk. Then,
on the morning of March eighth, Alan was kicked into
the bathroom by Sepulvido, who threatened a scald him with
hot water if he again defecated in his pants. That
same morning, Alan was told to dress and clean up
before going to church, but he hesitated, and when he hesitated,
Sepulvido whacked Alan on the head with the handle of
a screwdriver several times at full force, until the boy
fell unconscious. Sepulvido also immersed him in a bathtub full
of scalding hot water. After the assault and the scalding,
Alan was allowed to eat, but he vomited, fell over,
and lost consciousness right after. Three hours later, the couple
rushes Alan to DeSoto General Hospital. Now, despite receiving medical treatment,
Allan was pronounced dead shortly after two pm that afternoon.
It was discovered he was deceased before he even arrived
at the hospital. Now, Initially, neighbors grieved with the Sepulvidoes.
A next door neighbor by the name of Dorothy Wright
said that Yvonne Sepulvedo told her Alan accidentally fell in
the bathtub and it had hot water while they were
getting ready for church. She was told the boy tried
to get out, but slipped back into the tub. Wright
told news cameras she said the child was not breathing
by the time they took him to the hospital. Neighbors
also said the last time they saw Alan alive was Friday,
two days before his death. Neighborhood children were told Saturday
that Allan was being punished it could not go out
and play, and neighbors describe the Supulvidas as a straightforward
church going good people. After Allan's death, a neighbor said
Christopher Supulvida was seen wearing a red T shirt that
stated John three point sixteen on the front and Born
Again on the back. Allan's paternal grandmother would only say
the boy's death was probably the most tragic thing that
has ever happened in our lives, and neither she nor
her son would comment further. On March ninth of nineteen
ninety two, in autopsy, was conducted by doctor George McCormick,
and he found that the cause of death was due
to failure of the heart and lungs caused by severe
third degree burns covering fifty eight percent of Allan's body,
and doctor McCormick also found multiple head wounds on Allen
from those screwdrivers. Right the boy's body was covered in first,
second and third degree burns. The total body surface area
involved was more than eighty percent of this precious child's body. Disgusting. So,
armed with this obvious information of abuse coming from the
Corner police, on March eleventh of nineteen ninety two, they
arrest Allan's mother, Yvonne and his stepfather, Christopher Supulvido, immediately
following the funeral of Allen, and they both faced one
count each of first degree murder. The couple's infant son
at this point was placed in the custody of the state.
So police take Supulvedo in for questioning and he admits
to the police that he had assaulted Allan, but he
denies that he intentionally immersed him in water. He claimed
that Allan accidentally fell into the bathtub and that was
how he got scalded by hot water. On March seventeenth
of nineteen ninety two, Sepulvido and his wife the again
indicted on first degree murder charges, and both were facing
the death penalty at the worst, life in prison at
the best. Yvon was escorted in shackles to testify before
the specially convened grand jury, and Supulvido did not appear
before the grand jury, so she was testifying against him.
It sounds like to me, the district attorney, Don Perquettes said,
we will likely seek the death penalty against one of
the defendants and possibly the other. The evidence is that
the child died as a result of the actions of
the two defendants indicted. Burkett would not say at this
time whether either defendant agreed to testify against the others
in exchange for a lesser charge, but I can guarantee
you that the mother in this case did. And on
March twenty fourth of nineteen ninety two, during their arraignment,
both Sepulvedo and his wife pleaded not guilty to the
charges of first degree murder no surprise, they had nothing
to lose there, and a trial date gets set. That
trial date was for June one of nineteen ninety two.
Now surprisingly to me, on April fourth of nineteen ninety two,
Yvonne is freed on a fifty thousand dollars bond, but
Supulvido he remains in the descetto Paris jail now throughout
the next year. As it's common in first degree murder cases,
the trial date gets moved several times. You see this
on just about every murder case in the world. It
never ends up being that first date that you hear.
But finally, on April twelfth of nineteen ninety three, jury
selection begins and the Sepulvido trial starts. So the jury
hears the testimony of thirteen year old Larry Michelle of Monroe,
who was another one of Supulvido's step sons. He said
Supolvido had beaten him many times when he lived with Christopher.
A next girlfriend of Sepulvido's by the name of Gail Hughes.
She told Jerry he had beaten her more times than
she could count, including hitting her over the head with
a two by four. This guy's history of hitting on
the weaker than him physically is ridiculous, disgusting. On April seventeenth,
of nineteen ninety three at Decetto, Paris, jury finds Sepulvido
guilty of first degree murder after delivering for just thirty
three minutes. And that is no fucking surprise to me.
The guilty verdict was given despite testimony by a defense
witness who said Alan's burns were not consistent with child abuse.
Of course this is a defense witness, right, They're not
going to air on the side of the prosecution. The
doctor was a burn expert for Batner's General Medical Center. Instead,
Alan's injuries had characteristics of an unconscious child being placed
in hot water. Well, I would say that that is
child abuse. One of the strangest statements I've ever read.
Earlier in the trial cornered doctor George McCormick, he tested
for the prosecution and said the child's injuries did not
appear accidental. And on April nineteenth of nineteen ninety three,
just two days later, the jury recommends the death penalty
for Sepulvido. It took the jury less than a half
hour to decide on the death penalty, so their minds
were made up. And I would imagine that most people
sitting on the jury during this trial. Hearing all of
this abuse and all of the shit that this guy
did prior to killing this poor baby, would have probably
thought the same way. He became the first person in
almost twenty years in Descetto Parish to get the death penalty.
And its ironic that the last person sentenced to death
in Decetto Parish was Supolvido's cousin, Clayton Supovido. This was
in nineteen seventy six. He was convicted of shooting a
man in the head. That sentence later got converted to
life in prison. But the apple obviously not falling far
from the tree. There the da Don Burquette said, sentenced
this animal to death. He deserves it. So it's off
to bloody Angla for this guy. And a few months later,
on July twenty eighth of nineteen ninety three, Yvonne's trial
starts and Yvonne's trial was declared a mistrial. Initially, I
know it's shocking. Defense attorney James Calbwell asked for a
mistrial when a psychiatrist who was to be an expert
witness for the defense suddenly gets critically ill and was
hospitalized in Monroe. The judge granted that and granted a
start of a new trial. It ends up occurring on
December sixth of nineteen ninety three. This was Yvonne's second trial.
She pleaded not get by reason of insanity. Yvonne calmly
told the jury how she whipped son Allan and deprived
him of food for two days before his death. Yvonne
said that she punished her son for soiling his pants
by whipping him with a belt and hitting him in
the face. She argued that she was a batter wife
who was temporarily insane and was not aware of what
she was doing. Yvonne was ultimately convicted of a lesser
charge of manslaughter and sentenced to twenty one years in prison,
not enough in my opinion, and when it was all
sudden done. Yvonne just served seven and a half years
of that sentence before she was released in two thousand
and two and has remarried since. In twenty thirteen, she
actually accepted an interview, and in that interview, she said
that she was saddened by her son's death and felt
partly responsible for not ending her toxic relationship with Supulvido,
Although she said she never killed her son and was
not as evil as what people believed her to be,
and I'll leave that up to you. So, Christopher, he's
doing what those sentenced to death do, right, and that's
issue a massive amount of appeals. In twenty thirteen, after
exhausting nearly all his appeals, a death warrant is issued
for Supulvido and he gets an execution date scheduled, and
that was scheduled to take place on February thirteenth of
twenty thirteen. And on January twenty eighth of twenty thirteen,
the Louisiana Supreme Court they deny a stay of execution
to Sepulvido. In the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops, they
appeal to then Governor Bobby Jendall to stay the scheduled execution. Subsequently,
the District Judge, James Joseph Brady, he delays that execution
pending more information on the state's lethal injection protocol. On
February seventh of twenty thirteen, Supovido's second appeal to the
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals gets dismissed. And you remember
that interview I referenced just a few minutes ago with
Yvonne well, I'm gonna go ahead. I'm gonna play you
that interview because it references also these mass of appeals,
et cetera with Christopher. So here's that clip.
Speaker 4: Justice delayed at our Clitec's convicted childkiller remains on death row.
Speaker 5: I never recall Christopoldo showing any remorse than anything.
Speaker 6: Christapovodo has been too long where he's been too long. Finally,
I just said, as he did, I had nothing to
do with the death of my son.
Speaker 5: He was scheduled to die tonight for the brutal murder
of his six year old stepson.
Speaker 7: We uncover new.
Speaker 5: Details about his date with death. A DeSoto parish man
remains on death row now after a judge delayed his execution,
which was scheduled for tonight.
Speaker 4: It was delayed because the state Department of Corrections had
not given Christopher S. Pavldo enough information about the drug.
Speaker 8: That was going to be used to kill him. We
have team.
Speaker 5: Coverage tonight, new information tonight, An attorney for the Department
of Corrections tells Casele News twelve.
Speaker 7: An appeal of the delay of.
Speaker 5: That execution is expected to be heard tomorrow before the
Fifth Circuit Court of appeals in New Orleans. We begin
our team coverage tonight with a trip back to the
scene of the crime, where our community is still coping
twenty years after tragedy. Nothing can crush the heart of
a kindergarten teacher more.
Speaker 6: Every morning when he came to school, he hugged people
that he's home.
Speaker 5: Then hearing that one of your students passed away was.
Speaker 7: Stated and shocked.
Speaker 2: In no way this could have happened.
Speaker 7: To this child.
Speaker 5: March eighth, nineteen ninety two, words spread quickly in the
small town of Mansfield of six year old Alan Mercer's death.
Speaker 9: Diane Deese was in church, and then you begin to wonder,
was there something I missed?
Speaker 7: Was there something going on that I should have noticed.
Speaker 5: The little boy was rushed from his home on Church
Street to DeSoto Hospital.
Speaker 7: His stepfather, Christopher S.
Speaker 5: Palvido, carried him inside, and doctor Jeffrey Evans was there.
Speaker 9: Obviously had been burned badly because the flash was coming
off of him.
Speaker 5: Sub Palvedo told investigators it was an accident.
Speaker 7: The boy slipped into a tub of hot water.
Speaker 9: He was already dead, but we can tell that now
how long he had been dead, Probably less than two hours.
Speaker 7: I would say it was obvious that something terrible had
happened to the child. I was one shock.
Speaker 5: Lieutenants Tony Jo Morris and Judson Reeves were called to investigate.
Speaker 7: They interviewed Christopher.
Speaker 5: Sapalvido and the boy's mom, Yvonne, and then gathered evidence
at the home.
Speaker 7: Along with witness accounts.
Speaker 5: They found out that Christopher Sapalvido abused and tortured little
Alan Mercer after the boy soiled his pants at school.
Speaker 7: And he was had a fear of Chris. I mean,
it was a horror.
Speaker 5: There were beatings and threats to hang the little boy.
Speaker 9: And that's not all they didn't They didn't feed him
private night, they didn't feed him Saturday at all.
Speaker 5: Investigators say Yvonne and Christopher Sapalvido even made the boy
sleep in his soiled clothes both nights on this trunk
right in front of his bed. What happened next at
this home was even more heinous. Investigators say Christopher Sapalvido
grabbed the handle of a screwdriver and struck Alan Mercer
numerous times over the head and till he was unconscious.
Speaker 7: That was in his bedroom. Then he lifted the body,
brought it over to the.
Speaker 5: Bathroom and lowered it into a tub filled with scalding water.
Speaker 3: I immediately looked at the water heater as to what
the pharmostat was on the water heater and what was that?
Speaker 7: If I remember correctly, it was two hundred and ten degrees.
Speaker 5: Evidence showed Christopher Sepalvido made up his story.
Speaker 7: Then the story didn't make sense.
Speaker 5: The severe burns were mostly on the boy's back.
Speaker 9: Now his hands and toes were spared, which is consistent
with immersing the person.
Speaker 7: A horrifying end to a young life.
Speaker 5: There are only memories now kept alive all these years
later by a single.
Speaker 7: File, and the painful thought of what could have been.
Speaker 4: When I grow up, I want to be a doctor,
and he will never get to grow up, and he
will never get to be a doctor.
Speaker 5: For her part, Yvonn Mercer Sepalvido served seven years of
a twenty one year sentence from manslaughter. Investigators and the
jury that convicted her say that she was far from
innocent and the murder of her son twenty years ago.
But as we continue our team coverage, Dominique, she tells
you that she is innocent.
Speaker 4: She does pad and actually, for the first time, Selen
Mercer's mom is telling her side of the story to
KSLA News twelve.
Speaker 8: She agreed to sit down with me.
Speaker 4: Now remarried, Yvonne Jones lives quietly just outside of Monroe.
She helps out at a local beauty salon there and
she's written a book. Tonight, in an exclusive interview, I
go one on one with Yvonne Jones, who says she
has not the monster investigators made her out to.
Speaker 7: Be very precious angel I went into a state of shop.
Speaker 8: I had nothing to do with the death.
Speaker 6: Of my son.
Speaker 8: See, it was my life.
Speaker 4: It is still difficult for Yvonne Jones to talk about
the day her six year old son, Alan Mercer was
dipped into a tub full of skull water. Her ex husband,
Christopher Sapalvedo, was convicted.
Speaker 8: Of first degree murder and sentenced to death. Then you're arrested, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: I'm arrested, and Yvonne said, detectives told her it's not
what she did, but what she didn't do.
Speaker 6: You know, It's like you were there, you should have
stopped it.
Speaker 4: She was originally charged with first degree murder, followed by
a mistrial and a second trial, she faced manslaughter.
Speaker 6: All I need was what my daddy had told me, honey,
all I.
Speaker 8: Can dare to tell you, just tell the truth.
Speaker 7: And the truth said you free.
Speaker 4: In the end, she was sentenced to twenty one years
in prison. She did seven and a half years before
she was released. That was eleven years ago. Now, Yvonne
has written a book, A Time to Heal, The Struggles
of a Battered Woman. Part of the book, she talks
about her life with Christopher Sapalvedo and how she felt
like a prisoner in.
Speaker 8: Her own home. She also talks about fearing the man
she fell in love with. Some people would think that
you are playing victim.
Speaker 6: I do consider myself to be a victim. Every battered
woman is a victim.
Speaker 4: Even though she feels like a victim, she also feels
partly responsible for not getting out of a toxic relationship sooner.
And now she's hoping these pages will guide battered spouses
into making the right decision.
Speaker 6: And they're going to be able to see that how
God took me from a place of brokenness, a place
of being battered, in a place of mental anguish and
destitute and totally messed up to a miracle, because in
my eyes, I'm a walking miracle.
Speaker 4: To read an excerpt from Yvonne Jones' book of Time
to Heal The Struggles of a Battered Woman, We have
linked it to.
Speaker 8: Our website at kaysline dot com.
Speaker 4: Alan Mercer's paternal grandparents say they are tired of waiting.
While in Monroe, I stopped by the home of Sonny
and Mattie Mercer. Their son was married to Yvonne Jones
and was Allan's father. We looked over newspaper clippings from
twenty years ago and pictures from when Alan spent time
with his grandparents. Now, they say justice needs to be served.
Speaker 1: There's always consequences to mistakes we make, or crimes we
command or whatever.
Speaker 7: So I think he needs to suffer those I.
Speaker 8: Think it should have happened a long time ago. He's
been on death row too long.
Speaker 7: Yeah, he reman guy.
Speaker 9: I think it's Some of his other wives of Ermit
trial say it how bad he worse to them.
Speaker 4: The Mercers were approached about watching the execution, but say
they have no interest in witnessing Christopher Supalvedo was execution.
Speaker 5: Back to what's next for Christopher So Palvido and the
delay of his execution. I spoke to DeSoto Paris District
Attorney Richard Johnson, who has this to say quote, I
am disappointed that the execution was delayed. However, I have
faith that although slow is sure.
Speaker 3: Then on September sixth of twenty thirteen, the execution gets
rescheduled to be carried out, and so he gets another
execution date of November fifth of twenty thirteen. However, the
Supreme Court vacates the execution date three weeks later, allowing
Supulvido time to continue his appeal. Can you imagine all
the money that this costs, all the time you can
see the red tape is just insane with this. On
October first of twenty thirteen, the Louisiana Supreme Court vacates
Supaulve's November fifth execution date. In October fifteenth of twenty thirteen,
they turned down Supulvido's final appeal. So then we get
into twenty fourteen January seventh, and for the third time
in over a year, Supulvido's execute date gets set, this
time for March seventh of twenty fourteen. So it's going
to happen, right, not so fast. During the time he's
awaiting to be executed, the whole system crashes in the
state of Louisiana over the lethal injection protocol. So there's
a lot of legal ease that occurs all the way
until twenty twenty four. And in twenty twenty four, as
I've told you in the past, Jeff Landry becomes governor
the State of Louisiana. He makes it his business to
get to the bottom of these death penalty issues and
start rolling out death penalty cases again. It was part
of his platform, And in March of twenty twenty four,
he signs a bill to allow the state to adopt
both nitrogen gas inhalation and the electric chair. Is all
ternative execution methods aside from lethal injection. He's just gonna
go to a whole new deal. In February of twenty
twenty five, the Attorney General, Liz Murrell announces that the
state will resumed the executions and they're going to use
nitrogen hypoxia as the method. And of course I told
you in the last episode about Alabama and the fact
that they had executed four prisoners between January twenty twenty
four and February of twenty twenty five. Using this method,
Christopher Sepulvido and two other condemned inmates, rapist killer Jesse
Hoffman who I've told you about last week and the
Cheneyville slasher Larry Roy, were among the first death row
prisoners Louisiana authorities sought to execute first. So on February
twelfth of twenty twenty five, Judge Amy McCartney signs the
death warrant for Supulvedo and she schedules his death sentence
to be carried out on March seventeenth of twenty twenty five. Now,
Supulvido at this time is eighty one years old, and
he was the oldest out of all fifty seven death
row inmates held in Louisiana. And of course his lawyers
respond to this, and they argue that the wheelchair bound
client was of advanced age, suffered from multiple serious medical ailments,
and grew remorseful over his stepson's murder, and thus judicial
mercy and compassion should be exercised in this case. But
in the biggest twist of all to this case, just
weeks before his scheduled execution, on February twenty second of
twenty twenty five, Christopher Sepulvido dies of natural causes. So
Palvado apparently had long been unwell. He was combined to
a wheelchair. He suffered from a variety of chronic conditions
and illnesses, including obstructive pulmonary disease, a blocked artery to
his brain, and gang green that led to him becoming
septic in his leg. Days before his execution warrant was signed,
doctors had recommended he enter hospice care, which occurred. He
was hospitalized in New Orleans and after about a week
he returned to Bloody Angola and died in the prison infirmary.
And if you feel sorry for Christopher, consider that six
year old boy that he beat and burned to death.
That's what I would say. Consider the victim just an
evil human being in my opinion. And there you have it.
Check out the Patreon for commercial free early releases. And
next week I'm going to bring you that story of
the Cheneyville Slasher as we continue this Executions commenced series.
And until next time, I'm Jim Chapman for Bloody and
goa a podcast to one hundred and forty two years
in making the complete story of America's bloodiest present. Peace
a wall.
Speaker 1: Street line, Shackle, Chaine. It's calling my name. There is
no mercy and this being a tentery juice as the
hustream game Rangle three, I'm here, bef here to die
inside these walls, inside the wild.
Speaker 2: And when the girls, I know it's oldbody angle, obody angle.
Speaker 6: You do bring