Pinoy gets 218-year jail term in US

MANILA, Philippines - A Filipino member  of the Asian Boyz gang was sentenced to 218 years in prison, the Filipino-American newspaper Asian Journal reported.

Judge Curtis Rappe of Los Angeles, California handed down late August the decision against 38-year-old Pierre Mercado, convicted of four counts of first degree murder, five attempted murders, kidnapping for robbery and kidnapping for extortion.

Mercado was a member of a gang composed of Southeast Asians who are known for committing crimes against members of the Asian immigrant community in the mid-1990s, the report said.

Officers of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation tracked down and brought him back to the U.S. after he and his brother Marvin, also a member of the gang, went into hiding in the Philippines under different names.

The report added that the Los Angeles Police Department investigators said the Asian Boyz killed two gang rivals, three men mistaken for gang enemies, a man during a robbery, a teenager and another man.

Other members of the gang have already been prosecuted and sentenced to life imprisonment for their role in the crimes.

Marvin was sentenced to eight life sentences without parole.

Pierre's lawyers said they would file for an appeal.