A 54-year-old Bronx man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for pistol-whipping and fatally shooting his romantic rival just an hour after the other man’s wife ended their affair. Pedro Mercado was sentenced in connection with the September 2023 killing of 38-year-old Joshua Antonetti outside a South Bronx public housing complex.
Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced the sentence, according to News 12 New York. Prosecutors say Mercado had been dating Antonetti’s wife, and that she ended the relationship with Mercado just one hour before the deadly confrontation. Clark said Mercado then beat Antonetti and shot him in the head in the parking lot at 645 Westchester Avenue, an address that leads directly into the parking lot of the New York City Housing Authority’s St. Mary’s Park Houses complex, according to News 12 Connecticut.
Police responded to a 911 call at approximately 12:42 a.m. on September 4, 2023, and found Antonetti with a gunshot wound to the head. EMS rushed him to NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln, where he died the following day, per reporting from The Bronx Daily.
Nearly Two Months on the Run Before Arrest
Mercado, listed as 51 years old at the time, was not taken into custody until November 1, 2023 — almost two months after the shooting — when he was arrested within the NYPD’s 40th Precinct. The Bronx Daily’s reporting adds that he was initially charged with murder, manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon before the case ultimately resolved with his 20-year manslaughter sentence…