Page 4 of 5 FirstFirst ... 2345 LastLast
Results 31 to 40 of 44

Thread: Charles Merritt - California Death Row

  1. #31
    Senior Member CnCP Legend
    Join Date
    Oct 2018
    Posts
    2,243
    Key prosecution evidence ‘flopped’ in McStay family murder case, defense contends

    Lawyers for Charles "Chase" Merritt are expected to start presenting their case.

    By Richard K. De Atley
    The San Bernardino Sun

    After two months of trial, there’s still no evidence that Charles “Chase” Merritt of Rancho Cucamonga killed business partner Joseph McStay, his wife and their two small sons, a defense attorney claimed this week.

    Merritt faces the death penalty if convicted as charged in the case.

    Since opening statements Jan. 7, prosecutors have tried to show jurors that he was the person who killed the McStay family in their Fallbrook home in northern San Diego County and buried them near the High Desert town of Victorville in San Bernardino County.

    The trial has been on hiatus since the prosecution rested March 4. It is expected to resume Tuesday, March 12, in the downtown San Bernardino courtoom of Judge Michael A. Smith.

    Merritt and McStay had developed a business relationship to create large custom waterworks for clients that included customers in Saudi Arabia and Paul Mitchell hair salons. McStay took care of design and sales and Merritt the intricate construction work.

    Merritt, who said McStay was his best friend, “desperately tried to cover his tracks after the murder” and “misled investigators, talked in circles, and played the victim” before he was arrested and charged, San Bernardino County prosecutor Sean Daugherty said in opening statements. He said Merritt killed the family out of greed.

    But two months later, defense attorney Rajan Maline asked, “What happened here? Where’s the evidence we all thought was coming?”

    “It didn’t materialize, ” he said Thursday in an interview a few days before Merritt’s attorneys begin presenting their case to jurors.

    San Bernardino County prosecutors have stated previously they will not comment on the case while trial is in progress.

    Prosecutors said DNA evidence from the McStay family Subaru, found parked in San Ysidro near the Mexican border after the family disappeared, would link Merritt to the slaying. And on Feb. 6, 2010, two days after the family disappeared, cell tower evidence would place McStay near the High Desert grave sites, they said

    “Those flopped,” Maline said Thursday.

    Authorities say Merritt, 61, fatally bludgeoned McStay, 40, his wife, Summer, 43, and their two children, Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr., 3, in their Fallbrook home in San Diego County on Feb. 4, 2010, then buried their bodies in two shallow graves in the Mojave Desert, north of Victorville and west of the 15 Freeway.

    Merritt and McStay met in the afternoon of Feb. 4 at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Rancho Cucamonga. Merritt said it was to discuss their custom water-feature business.

    The suspected murder weapon, a 3-pound sledgehammer, was found in one of the graves. Sheriff’s investigators believe Summer McStay may have been raped before she was killed.

    The family had moved to Fallbrook, 45 miles north of San Diego, in November 2009 from San Clemente.

    The bodies were found in November 2013 and Merritt was arrested and charged a year later.

    Cell phone data could not pinpoint

    Maline said defense cross-examination about cell phone data showed it could not pinpoint Merritt’s phone near the grave site.

    “Is it also fair to conclude that the only reasonable opinion or conclusion you can make from this data is that the cell phone was in the High Desert area?” defense attorney James McGee asked FBI Special Agent Kevin Boles, who testified Feb. 26.

    That exchange is from YouTube audio of the testimony from the Law & Crime website, which as been live-streaming the trial as well as posting audio and video.

    “Yes, I believe that’s a fair assessment. … You can get a general idea of where in the High Desert, but still it’s not very precise,” said Boles, who had analyzed the data.

    In opening statements, Daugherty said the data made Merritt the only person associated with the McStays who also had a connection to the High Desert, but Maline said Boles’ testimony was “very helpful to our case.”

    DNA evidence diminished

    Maline also said testimony devalued evidence of Merritt’s DNA lifted from the family’s white Isuzu Trooper, found parked in a San Ysidro parking lot near the Mexican border Feb. 8. 2010. It led authorities to believe for a while that the family might be in Mexico.

    Testimony showed that Merritt was a trace contributor, a DNA amount that could be transferred to a steering wheel from casual contact with Joseph McStay, including a handshake, Maline said.

    If Merritt was the driver for the 90-minute trip from Fallbrook to San Ysidro, “He would have been the main (DNA) contributor,” the attorney said.

    Merritt, who has a criminal record of burglary and petty theft in three California counties, was happy and successful in his venture with McStay, going on to complete projects in 2010, even after McStay disappeared, Maline said.

    Defense says suspect overlooked

    Maline repeated the defense contention that it has developed evidence another business associate of Joseph McStay, Daniel Kavanaugh, was overlooked by investigators as a suspect in the case.

    Kavanaugh has denied the allegations.

    One of the McStay’s businesses was an online outlet for decorative fountains, Earth Inspired Products, and it was Kavanaugh’s work that boosted the company’s web appearances when people searched online for that product.

    But Kavanaugh was not included in McStay’s new venture with Merritt, the creation and sale of large, custom-built water features. Defense attorneys have said Kavanaugh was angry that McStay was keeping him out that growing, bigger-money operation.

    Kavanaugh also took over Earth Inspired Products after McStay disappeared and made $250,000 before it ended, Maline said. He said it was Kavanaugh, not Merritt, who was responsible for the company’s eventual decline.

    The prosecution has one more expert due to testify when trial resumes. That witness is expected to offer more analysis that it was Merritt’s truck briefly captured the night of Feb. 4 by a home video security camera on the McStay’s street in Fallbrook.

    https://www.sbsun.com/2019/03/11/key...ense-contends/

  2. #32
    Senior Member CnCP Legend
    Join Date
    Oct 2018
    Posts
    2,243
    Expert says Merritt truck ‘cannot be excluded’ as vehicle on McStay neighborhood video

    Defense challenges conclusions, saying they were formed to confirm the prosecution's view of the case.

    By Richard K. De Atley
    The San Bernardino Sun

    An expert testified Tuesday that Charles “Chase” Merritt’s pickup truck “cannot be excluded” as the vehicle caught briefly on a security video driving away from the Fallbrook home of the McStay family the night in 2010 prosecutors say they were slain and disappeared.

    Prosecution witness Eugenio Liscio used a laser scan of Merritt’s 2000 Chevrolet 350 truck, outfitted with storage compartments and an elevated rack over the bed, and imposed that image over the grainy black-and-white video. He used a software program to make the analysis.

    Merritt’s defense attorney James McGee pushed back, saying Liscio had not used all the video evidence available, questioned how he arrived at some measurements, and suggested some of his conclusions may have been formed to fit the bias of the prosecution, who was paying him.

    Liscio denied that, and reminded McGee more than once that he had not identified the truck specifically as Merritt’s

    Merritt, 61, who lived in Rancho Cucamonga at the time the investigation began, is being tried in the capital murder case in the downtown San Bernardino Justice Center before Judge Michael A. Smith.

    He has pleaded not guilty to the charges that he killed Joseph McStay, 40, a former business associate; his wife, Summer, 43, and their two children, Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr., 3, in their Fallbrook home on Feb. 4, 2010, then buried their bodies more than 100 miles away — in two shallow graves in the Mojave Desert, north of Victorville and west of the 15 Freeway.

    Prosecutors said Merritt killed out of greed, and tried to loot McStay’s business account. His defense attorneys have pointed to another McStay business associate as suspect, and said Merritt depended on McStay for income through contracts to build high-end custom water features that McStay designed and sold.

    Liscio cautioned under questioning by San Bernardino County Supervising Deputy District Attorney Britt Imes that he could not definitively say the truck on the video was Merritt’s.

    The low quality of the video camera, which caught the truck’s headlights as glaring blobs, rather than the rectangular shape they have, prevented precise measurements, he said.

    Among the items that helped to reach the conclusion that the vehicle was “consistent” with Merritt’s truck was a glint caught by the video that matched the position of a latch on a passenger-side storage box toward the rear of the truck, said Liscio,who uses 3D imagery.

    McGee played for Liscio a different security video from the same home, but from a side yard, with a view more perpendicular to the street. He asked if a “bright and constant” light from the side couldn’t be the truck’s taillight.

    That video was not used in the analysis.

    “Why won’t you say this is a taillight?” McGee asked.

    “It’s not about what I can or can’t say. Its about what the evidence can show and sometimes the evidence can only take you to a certain point,” Liscio said. He said there was little to work with, with the side yard video.

    “If that is a taillight, then that does not match the characteristic of the … Chevy 350 that you analyzed?” McGee asked Liscio, over an overruled prosecution objection.

    “I’m not saying that this your client’s vehicle,” Liscio repeated. “All I am saying is that the vehicle in question is consistent with my report, and if there is another vehicle that looks similar, that is possible.”

    Prosecutor Imes read the Liscio report’s “cannot be excluded” conclusion into the record, and Liscio said none of the questions raised by McGee on Tuesday had changed it.

    Other measurements Liscio did based on the video and the laser scan was the position of the headlights, the height of the truck, the shape of the shadows thrown at the back of the truck and the position of the truck’s exhaust pipe.

    He testified his quote for services was $14,000. Prompted by Imes, he told jurors he would get paid even if his conclusions were not favorable to the prosecution.

    Liscio was the prosecution’s last witness in the case. Defense witnesses are expected to be called Wednesday.

    https://www.sbsun.com/2019/03/12/exp...borhood-video/

  3. #33
    Senior Member CnCP Legend
    Join Date
    Oct 2018
    Posts
    2,243
    Charles Merritt’s daughter: ‘I don’t have any reason to lie for him’

    The defense in the McStay family murder case begins its case by calling Charles 'Chase' Merritt's daughter to the stand.

    By Richard K. De Atley
    The San Bernardino Sun

    The daughter of McStay family slaying defendant Charles “Chase” Merritt testified Wednesday that her parents quarreled after Merritt didn’t answer a phone call from Joseph McStay on the evening of Feb. 4, 2010.

    Prosecutors contend that Merritt, in fact, was killing McStay and his family in their Fallbrook home on that very night.

    Sara Taylor Jarvis, now 24, was the first witness for the defense in a trial that began in early January. Her testimony Wednesday was challenged by Deputy District Attorney Melissa Rodriguez, who said her father had talked to her about how to testify; Jarvis denied Rodriguez’s allegation.

    Merritt, 61, has pleaded not guilty to the charges that he killed McStay, 40, a business associate, his wife, Summer, 43, and their two children, Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr., 3, in their San Diego County home more than nine years ago.

    Investigators said he buried their bodies more than 100 miles away in a remote spot north of Victorville. The bodies were found in November 2013 and Merritt was arrested and charged a year later.

    The family had moved to Fallbrook, 45 miles north of San Diego, in November 2009 from San Clemente. They were in the process of remodeling their four-bedroom, three-bathroom home when they went missing.

    Jarvis on Wednesday said Joseph McStay was “my dad’s business partner and his best friend.” Prosecutors say Merritt killed McStay out of greed, and looted his business account.

    The two men worked on large-size custom water features, with Merritt building the metal sculptures designed by McStay, who also sold them. Defense attorneys say Merritt’s income depended on business from McStay, and he had no reason to kill him. The say another business associate of McStay has been ignored as a suspect.

    In her testimony Wednesday, Jarvis said Merritt and McStay started working together when she was 11 or 12 years old.

    She told defense attorney Rajan Maline that she recalled her mother, Catherine Jarvis, and Merritt getting into an argument the evening of Feb. 4, 2010 after her father declined to answer a phone call from McStay.

    She told Rodriguez she didn’t “physically” see the incoming call, but remembered the content of the argument. When, she said, Merritt tried to call McStay back later, there was no answer.

    “It turned into less of an argument and more of — the next day my dad couldn’t get ahold of Joseph and in the subsequent days the conversation turned more to my mom saying, ‘now you can’t get ahold of Joseph’ “

    “And as time went on, it became, ‘what if that was an emergency call or a call for help,’ ” she testified.

    Sara Jarvis told Maline the call came while the family was at the Rancho Cucamonga apartment complex where they lived in at the time.

    Rodriguez challenged her account, saying Merritt had talked to Jarvis recently about the need to place him in Rancho Cucamonga on the night of Feb. 4, 2010.

    Defense attorneys failed last month to keep prosecutors from using evidence from planted device recordings of jailhouse meetings between Merritt and his family in recent months.

    Merritt had stopped using the monitored intercom phones provided for inmates to talk to visitors and started talking to visitors including his family by shouting through the security glass, prompting the use of hidden devices, prosecutors said.

    “You talked about evidence that was presented during trial, right?” Rodriguez asked, and Jarvis agreed.

    “And he talked to you about the phone towers, right?”

    “Yes.”

    “And specifically told you about the need to be at home on the night of the fourth, because his phone was pinging off of a tower in the Riverside area. Do you recall that part of the conversation?” Rodriguez asked.

    “I don’t know if he said he needed to be home. But I remember talking to him in general about the phone towers,” Jarvis answered.

    When Maline followed Rodriguez and asked Jarvis why her family had discussed the case in jail meetings, Jarvis broke down in tears. “Our whole family is part of this,” she said. She is pursuing a law degree because of the case, she said.

    “In the entire 4-1/2 year period that you have been visiting your dad (in jail), has he ever once told you to lie for him?” Maline asked.

    “No.” Jarvis said. “He’s actually been really specific. He said, like, if you don’t rememeber something, don’t say it.

    “I don’t have any reason to lie for him.”

    Trial in the San Bernardino courtroom of Superior Court Judge Michael A. Smith is scheduled to resume Thursday.

    https://www.sbsun.com/2019/03/13/cha...o-lie-for-him/

  4. #34
    Senior Member CnCP Legend
    Join Date
    Oct 2018
    Posts
    2,243
    Judge turns down defense motion to dismiss charges in McStay family murder trial

    The ruling came after a heated hearing.

    By Richard K. De Atley
    The Press-Enterprise

    The judge in the capital murder trial of Charles “Chase” Merritt, accused of fatally bludgeoning the four-member McStay family, refused Wednesday to dismiss charges against him, rejecting defense allegations that prosecutors withheld favorable evidence from them.

    The hearing out of the jury’s presence before San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Michael A. Smith prompted heated exchanges between opposing attorneys.

    The arguments were over expert Leonid Rudin’s analysis of a brief video of a work truck driving past an outdoor home security camera pointed at a Fallbrook street the night of Feb. 4, 2010. That’s when prosecutors say the McStay family, who lived on the street, were slain in their home.

    Prosecutors claim high-tech analyses of the murky video show it was Merritt’s truck. Defense attorneys have attacked those conclusions.

    Merritt’s attorneys said this week that Rudin, originally set to be the prosecution’s key video expert witness, had reached some conclusions that might be helpful to Merritt, and prosecutors did not fully and quickly disclose them to the defense as required by law.

    Prosecutors contend they did comply, saying they sent an email to the defense team in February telling them Rudin would not be their key video witness, and that Rudin was “unable to validate the overall length of the suspect truck in the evidence video compared to its known length” in a 3D laser scan of the truck.

    And in court papers filed this week, prosecutors also said Rudin “has never settled on his views; up to this filing, Rudin cannot opine the truck is Merritt’s, nor can he exclude it,”

    They questioned how that was helpful to the defense. Prosecutors used a different witness for their video evidence.

    Smith said the email was sent in enough time to avoid violations of Merritt’s rights to information that could help absolve him or discredit evidence against him.

    Rudin testified Tuesday and Wednesday as a subpoenaed defense witness. He previously had testified out of the jury’s presence.

    The judge did say the prosecution should have given defense attorneys a text message from Rudin that contained additional details. He said there had been no suppression of evidence and no violation of the disclosure rules.

    Merritt has pleaded not guilty to charges that he killed former business associate Joseph McStay, 40, his wife, Summer, 43, and their two children, Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr., 3, in their San Diego County home.

    Investigators said he buried their bodies more than 100 miles away in the Mojave Desert, north of Victorville and west of the 15 Freeway in November 2013.

    Merritt and McStay worked together to create and sell large-scale water features. Prosecutors say Merritt owed McStay money and looted his business bank account after McStay’s death. Defense attorneys point to another business associate of McStay’s as a prime suspect they say was overlooked by authorities.

    During the morning hearing, Smith had to shout to stop an angry exchange between defense attorney James McGee and Supervising Deputy District Attorney Britt Imes.

    McGee called Imes a liar after Imes said a statement by McGee was a lie.

    “Mr. McGee, if you have comments or a legal argument regarding Mr. Rudin, you can address them to the court. If you want to argue with Mr. Imes, go out in the parking lot,” the judge said.

    McGee apologized, but he insisted the defense did not get proper legal notice from prosecutors regarding Rudin.

    “To think that this is the state of capital prosecution in California, that you do not have to give notice of what experts are going to testify about, about stuff that is so convoluted that the DA who’s calling the witness does not understand it, by his own admission in an email,” he said.

    In addition to refusing to dismiss the charges, Smith also refused defense attorney Rajan Maline’s motions, among them to declare a mistrial, removal of Imes or all the prosecutors from the case, and striking the testimony of the video expert the prosecution did use.

    To “withhold that information, they made the playing field unlevel, they made it unfair,” Maline said.

    Testimony in the trial, originally forecast to end in April, began Jan. 7. Final arguments may begin next week. Testimony resumes Thursday.

    https://www.pe.com/2019/05/22/judge-...-murder-trial/

  5. #35
    Senior Member CnCP Legend
    Join Date
    Oct 2018
    Posts
    2,243
    Both Sides Rest in McStay Family Murder Trial

    Closing arguments are scheduled to begin the day after Memorial Day in the case that rattled Southern California residents for years.

    By R. Stickney
    NBC San Diego

    Both sides have rested in the McStay family murder trial, San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office confirmed Thursday.

    Closing arguments in the case against Charles Merritt are expected to begin on Tuesday, May 28.

    Merritt is charged with killing Joseph and Summer McStay along with their 3- and 4-year-old sons. The family's disappearance in 2010 perplexed investigators for years.

    Alerted by relatives of the Fallbrook family, investigators began looking into their whereabouts and discovered the family’s SUV had been towed from a parking lot in San Ysidro.

    Surveillance footage in the area showed who officials believed to be the McStays walking into Mexico.

    However, the disappearance stumped investigators for years.

    It wasn't until November 2013 that the family was found dead, buried more than 100 miles away in a remote area of San Bernardino County, along with a 3-pound sledgehammer and a child's pants and diaper.

    Joseph McStay's business partner, Merritt, was arrested the following year.

    Supervising deputy district attorney for San Bernardino County accused Merritt of "desperately [trying] to cover his tracks after the murders.”

    Prosecutors also accused Merritt of stealing thousands of dollars from Joseph’s custom fountain business by hacking his electronic bank account.

    Merritt pleaded not guilty to the charges.

    If convicted, Merritt could face the death penalty.

    https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/loc...510337391.html

  6. #36
    Senior Member CnCP Legend
    Join Date
    Oct 2018
    Posts
    2,243
    Closing arguments in murder trial of Charles Merritt, accused of killing McStay family

    By Leticia Juarez
    ABC7 Eyewitness News

    SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (KABC) -- Closing arguments in the murder case against Charles Merritt wrap up the five-month-long trial.

    Merritt is accused of killing his business partner, Joseph McStay, his wife Summer and the couple's two young boys in February 2010.

    "It was blow after blow after blow to a child's skull, a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old. That is an intentional killing," San Bernardino County Deputy District Attorney Brett Imes said during his statements to the jury.

    Imes told jurors the motive for the crime was motivated by Merritt's greed and financial troubles. He led jurors through evidence that showed Merritt was stealing money from McStay's QuickBooks account by writing checks and then deleting them from the record.

    "Why would he be getting the balance on the same day he gets a deposit? That doesn't make sense. It doesn't reconcile with his spreadsheet or the rest of his QuickBooks activity," said Imes.

    The defense countered by telling the jury during its closing argument the prosecution only focused on Merritt's character and not the facts of the murder. The defense said the circumstantial case lacked any evidence tying their client to the violent murders. But the prosecution reminded jurors they didn't have to prove how, where or when the McStay family was killed, only that Merritt committed the crimes.

    Imes focused jurors attention on Merritt's cellphone and internet activity in the days leading up to and following the family's disappearance from their Fallbrook home.

    "All of them just happened to happen. Just a coincidence that they happened the day Joseph and his family drop off the face of the Earth. What is the likelihood of that?" said Imes "And all of that happening in that one week when the defendant is cashing checks left and right for his own benefit."

    The defense's closing arguments got underway late in the afternoon and will continue on Wednesday morning.

    https://abc7.com/closing-arguments-i...rritt/5320695/

  7. #37
    Senior Member CnCP Legend
    Join Date
    Oct 2018
    Posts
    2,243
    Jurors for McStay family murder trial begin deliberating

    By Leticia Juarez
    ABC7 Eyewitness News

    SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (KABC) -- Jurors for the McStay family murder trial have begun their deliberations. The 12-member jury will decide if Charles "Chase" Merritt is responsible for killing the family of four in 2010.

    Final arguments in the capital murder case began on Tuesday and wrapped with the prosecution hitting back on some of the defense's claims during the five-month long trial.

    "We know somehow the defendant got control of that family and got them out of that house. The defense wants you to believe this crazy concocted story," San Bernardino County Deputy District Attorney Melissa Rodriguez said during her rebuttal.

    The defense claims Merritt could not have killed the family. Instead they told jurors the McStays were likely kidnapped from their Fallbrook home and murdered elsewhere by as many as three men. The 62-year-old has pleaded not guilty to charges he murdered his business partner, Joseph McStay, his wife Summer, and the couple's two young sons, Gianni and Joseph Jr.

    The prosecution believes Merritt murdered the family because he was being cut out of McStay's water-feature business and that he was also stealing money from the business - which McStay discovered.

    "The simple explanation is that the defendant dug himself into a financial hole," said Rodriguez.

    The remains of the family were discovered in two shallow graves in 2013. Merritt was arrested a year later.

    "Justice has been delayed, there is no doubt about that, but ladies and gentlemen when you go back into that juror room justice does not have to be denied for the McStay family," Rodriguez told jurors before concluding her rebuttal.

    If Merritt is found guilty the jury will then determine if he should receive the death penalty.

    https://abc7.com/jurors-for-mcstay-f...ating/5323578/

  8. #38
    Senior Member CnCP Legend
    Join Date
    Oct 2018
    Posts
    2,243
    Charles Merritt Found Guilty Of Slaying McStay Family

    CBSLA/AP

    SAN BERNARDINO (CBSLA/AP) — A 62-year-old man was found guilty Monday in a San Bernardino courtroom of murdering a Northern San Diego County family of four more than nine years ago and burying their bodies in shallow graves near Victorville.

    Charles “Chase” Merritt could face the death penalty at sentencing. The jurors’ decision came after about a week of deliberations.

    The McStay couple and their two young sons vanished suddenly in February 2010 from the Fallbrook home, with bowls of popcorn left uneaten in their house and no sign an attacker forced their way inside.

    In November 2013, their bodies were found by an off-road motorcyclist about 100 miles away, in shallow desert graves in a desert area just north of Victorville in San Bernardino County. Along with the bodies was a rusty sledgehammer.

    Merritt was arrested in November of 2014.

    On Friday, a jury reached their verdict in the murder case against Merritt, who authorities say killed the family with a sledgehammer after his business associate, 40-year-old Joseph McStay, tried to cut him out of a business making and selling custom water fountains.

    While many questions remain about the killings, prosecutors argued that evidence from the family’s car, financial accounts and cellphone towers linked Merritt to the deaths of Joseph McStay, his wife, 43-year-old Summer McStay, and the couple’s sons, 4-year-old Gianni and 3-year-old Joseph Jr.

    The San Bernardino County coroner’s office ruled the causes of death to be blunt force trauma to the head. Officials said Gianni suffered at least seven blows in the incident.

    After the McStays disappeared from their home in San Diego County, investigators couldn’t immediately determine what had happened. Their car was found parked at a strip mall near the Mexican border, and at one point, investigators said they believed the family had gone to Mexico.

    Merritt’s attorneys said Merritt and Joseph were best friends and investigators overlooked another possible suspect. They said the evidence doesn’t add up, noting there were no signs of an attack inside the family’s house.

    According to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, a preliminary investigation revealed Joseph had lent Merritt money to cover a gambling debt prior to the family’s disappearance. Merritt reportedly owed over $30,000 to McStay along with more than $20,000 in back taxes.

    Authorities said they traced Merritt’s cellphone to the area of the desert gravesites in the days after the family disappeared and to a call seeking to close McStay’s online bookkeeping account. They also said Merritt referred to McStay in the past tense in an interview with investigators after the family vanished.

    Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty.

    https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2019...mcstay-family/

  9. #39
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
    Prato, Italy
    Posts
    1,275
    McStay family slayings: Prosecutors urge death penalty for Merritt

    By Richard K. De Atley
    The Press-Enterprise

    Charles “Chase” Merritt was a “familiar face” let into the Fallbrook home of the McStay family on the night of Feb. 4, 2010 – but turned into a “monster of destruction” and killed the parents and two children, a prosecutor said Wednesday as he asked jurors to vote for the death penalty.

    Merritt, 62, was convicted June 10 of first-degree murder in the bludgeon deaths of former business associate Joseph McStay, 40, his wife, Summer, 43, and their two children, Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr., 3.

    The same jury that convicted him is hearing arguments in the penalty phase of the trial, when the panel will decide whether to recommend life in prison without parole, or death by lethal injection.

    The defense has elected not to offer any witnesses for this phase, saying it is not conceding that Merritt is guilty of killing the family, which had just moved from San Clemente. It will instead appeal to any lingering doubts jurors may have, hoping that strategy keeps him off of Death Row.

    “Our client didn’t do it, they got the wrong guy, they got it wrong, and therefore they should have a lingering doubt about what happened,” co-defense counsel Rajan Maline said outside court the day after Merritt was convicted.

    The defense is scheduled to address jurors Thursday.

    In a downtown San Bernardino Justice Center courtroom, Supervising Deputy District Attorney Britt Imes told the panel to consider the slayings of the two boys.

    “What possible motive can a human being have to murder a 4-year-old and a 3-year-old?” Imes said Wednesday morning. “Are they the only people left in that house after killing Joseph and Summer – they can identify him?

    “That’s simplistic to look at. Or is it cold, callous, collateral damage?” Imes went on. “Then it’s evil. What line must be crossed, ladies and gentlemen, to take the life of a defenseless 4-year-old, and a defenseless 3-year-old?

    “There is no motive that can be ascribed to the killer of a 4-year-old and a 3-year-old that passes muster,” he said in remarks streamed live on the Law & Crime Network.

    Merritt, a former Apple Valley resident, was arrested in November 2014 – a year after the McStay family’s skeletal remains were discovered in two shallow graves west of the 15 Freeway near Victorville. A three-pound sledge hammer investigators said was used to kill the family was buried there as well.

    McStay and Merritt had worked together in the sale, design and building of large-scale custom waterworks for clients that included Paul Mitchell salons. McStay found customers, and Merritt, whose business was separate from McStay’s, built the pieces.

    Prosecutors said Merritt was being cut out of the relationship by McStay for poor performance, and on Feb. 1, 2010, McStay sent an email to Merritt stating Merritt owed him $42,845. The McStay family was last heard from three days later.

    Then, prosecutors said, Merritt began looting McStay’s business, forging checks to himself in McStay’s name and backdating them to Feb. 4, because Merritt knew that was the last day anyone would have heard from McStay or his family.

    Defense attorneys said the men were best friends and future prospects for their business relationship were too lucrative for Merritt to kill McStay and his family.

    They said the checks were an effort to keep the waterworks business going after Joseph McStay disappeared and his fate was unknown. They said another business associate of McStay’s, a web designer, had disputes with McStay and was overlooked by investigators.

    https://www.pe.com/2019/06/19/mcstay...y-for-merritt/

  10. #40
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Death penalty recommended in Fallbrook family's murders

    Associated Press

    SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — A jury on Monday recommended the death penalty for a Southern California man convicted of killing a family of four with a sledgehammer and burying their bodies in shallow desert graves.

    Jurors in San Bernardino made the recommendation for Charles "Chase" Merritt, 62, in a case that puzzled investigators for years after a couple and their two young sons vanished from their home in 2010. Their bodies were found three years later.

    Merritt supported his head on his fists and closed his eyes as the verdicts were read. He also spoke briefly to his attorney.

    He was convicted this month of the murders of his former business associate Joseph McStay, McStay's wife Summer, and their 4- and 3-year-old sons, Gianni and Joseph Jr.

    Merritt had pleaded not guilty and his lawyers didn't offer witnesses during the penalty phase of his trial, insisting he is innocent.

    San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Michael A. Smith set a Sept. 27 hearing to formally sentence Merritt. He thanked the jurors after the verdicts were read, saying he knew the decision was "extremely difficult."

    Authorities said they believed Merritt killed the family as McStay was cutting him out of his business making and selling custom water fountains. When the family disappeared, there were no signs of forced entry at their San Diego County home and their car was found parked at a strip mall near the Mexico border.

    For years, no one could figure out what happened to them. In 2013, their bodies were found in shallow graves in the desert after an off-road motorcyclist discovered skeletal remains in the area. Authorities also unearthed a rusty sledgehammer that they said was used to kill the family.

    Merritt was arrested the following year. Authorities said they traced his cellphone to the area of the desert graves in the days after the family disappeared and to a call seeking to close McStay's online bookkeeping account. Merritt also had referred to McStay in the past tense during an interview with investigators.

    Authorities concede the case against Merritt largely focused on circumstantial evidence and that questions remain about what happened at the McStay home.

    During the trial's penalty phase, prosecutor Britt Imes asked jurors to consider any possible motive for the killing of two young boys, whether they could have been witnesses to the murder of their parents or simply victims of callous killings.

    "There is no motive that can be ascribed to the killer of a 4-year-old and a 3-year-old that passes muster," he said.

    Merritt's attorneys didn't call any witnesses during the penalty phase, instead appealing to any lingering doubts jurors may have had about killings they say their client didn't commit.

    "From the very beginning, this case screamed doubt," defense attorney Raj Maline told jurors. "This case is filled with unanswered questions."

    California has not executed anyone since 2006. Voters approved a ballot measure to speed up executions in 2016, but Gov. Gavin Newsom this year placed a moratorium on executions while he's in office.

    https://www.10news.com/news/local-ne...e-murder-trial
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

Page 4 of 5 FirstFirst ... 2345 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •