Grand jury indicts alleged killer
By Gloria I. Wang
The accused killer of a Los Gatos High School graduate was recently indicted for her murder and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The Santa Cruz County Grand Jury indicted Dennis Lee Richesin Oct. 18 on two charges of murder. The Watsonville man reportedly confessed to killing San Jose resident Kelly Reber, 21, and Nicole Pereira-Merchant, 25, Los Gatos High School class of 1993. On Oct. 19, however, Richesin entered in a plea of innocent to those killings.
If convicted, Richesin faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty.
Ordinarily, for a case to proceed to a court trial, a preliminary hearing would be needed, at which time the judge would weight the evidence and determine whether or not to move forward. But because the preliminary hearing date was postponed several times, prosecutors took the case to a grand jury for an indictment.
Richesin allegedly beat Pereira-Merchant to death last summer and Reber in March, burying both bodies behind a Watsonville school. Richesin confessed and led police to the graves in May.
Pereira-Merchant lived in Los Gatos and attended the high school from 1992-1993. At the time of her death, she was living in Watsonville.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
