Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office

25 Kirkpatrick Street, 3^rd Floor, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 08901 (732) 745-3300

*News Release* Date: October 27, 2009

New Brunswick man arrested and charged in homicide

Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan and New Brunswick Police Director Anthony A. Caputo announced that a New Brunswick man was arrested this morning and charged with fatally shooting a 30-year-old man on October 23, 2009.

Michael J. Mercado (DOB 8/12/81) of May Street, New Brunswick was arrested at 1:15 a.m. and was charged with the murder of Anthony Filardi, also of New Brunswick.

Mercado also was charged with armed robbery, carjacking, unlawful possession of a shotgun and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

The defendant was arrested following an intensive investigation by the New Brunswick Police Department’s Anti-Crime Unit, New Brunswick Detective Ronoldy Martinez and Investigator Eleazar Ricardo of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.

After receiving a 911 call at 5:07 a.m. on October 23, 2009, police found Mr. Filardi on the sidewalk on Lee Avenue, midway between Seaman and Handy streets.

He was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where he was pronounced dead at 6:34 a.m.

The investigation determined that after Mr. Filardi was shot, his car was stolen. The vehicle since has been recovered.

Mercado subsequently was apprehended this morning on Baldwin Street in New Brunswick.

He remains in custody without bail pending a hearing at 1:30 p.m. today before Superior Court Judge Frederick P. DeVesa at the Middlesex County Courthouse in New Brunswick.

The investigation remains active. Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Martinez at (732) 745-5200, or Investigator Ricardo at (732) 745-4239.

As is the case with all criminal defendants, the charges against Mercado are merely accusations and he is presumed innocent until proven guilty.