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Charles 'Chase' Merritt, in no hurry.
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Didn't realize this was going on.

Any new info on whatever illness he had? Thought this guy was supposed to die soon?

I think the guy did it, but still don't see how ripping off the company = murder beyond a reasonable doubt. Seems ALL they have is the business connection. They have a motive and absolutely nothing else from all i've read.

~@JackBurton~ Oh it's going on .... and on .... and on ....

http://www.sbsun.com/general-news/2...pect-charles-chase-merritt-gets-new-attorneys

As to the money, according to the first search warrant, McStay loaned Merritt $30,000 to pay a gambling debt. It was also reported that McStay was going to fire Merritt as the company was losing many thousands due to Merritt's shoddy welding work and company complaints about his half assed work ethic. Also investigators testified about suspicious activity on a McStay business account around the time the family went missing, including backdated checks being written, some of which were deposited in Merritt’s bank account. Their was evidence given that Merritt had cashed thousands of dollars in checks on the account at casinos all across Southern California.

Prosecutors don't have absolutely nothing. Merritt told investigators and gave interviews stating rather emphatically that he had never been in the McStay family vehicle. He lied, his fingerprints were found on the steering wheel.

Merritt has claimed to be dying from a non disclosed heart condition with only months to live for years now.
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http://abc7.com/news/4-year-old-mcstay-boy-was-struck-7-times-on-head/786226/

Merritt has said there is no direct evidence linking him to the crime scene.

There is reportedly a DNA match that links Merritt to the McStay vehicle, which was found in San Ysidro near the U.S.-Mexico border. Merritt's DNA was found on the steering wheel and gearshift, even though Merritt told detectives he had never driven that vehicle.

Detectives said when they interviewed Merritt about the missing family, he referred to them in the past tense, saying Joseph McStay "was my best friend."

Witnesses also testified that Merritt cashed checks written from Joseph McStay's business account days after McStay and his family vanished. Witnesses say those checks were backdated to the last day the family was seen.





 
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One thing that sticks out to me here is, if the murder weapon was a sledge hammer and according to this article the father was struck 4 times and the 4 year old 7 times.....

It happened allegedly inside the family home....

Where is the blood. I find it hard to believe there was not even one drop of blood. That he was able to clean up the entire mess, without leaving a trace of blood or a trace of the cleanup?

http://abc7.com/news/4-year-old-mcstay-boy-was-struck-7-times-on-head/786226/
 
One thing that sticks out to me here is, if the murder weapon was a sledge hammer and according to this article the father was struck 4 times and the 4 year old 7 times.....

It happened allegedly inside the family home....

Where is the blood. I find it hard to believe there was not even one drop of blood. That he was able to clean up the entire mess, without leaving a trace of blood or a trace of the cleanup?

http://abc7.com/news/4-year-old-mcstay-boy-was-struck-7-times-on-head/786226/
Maybe they were sledge hammered some where else.?

Like right where they were buried.
 
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Maybe they were sledge hammered some where else.?

Like right where they were buried.

In that case, we have another indication of who it was that killed them. It would have been someone who could persuade two adults and two kids to come with him into the desert....... I doubt it was someone who was a stranger to them.
 
There is a 'case management conference' scheduled for Merritt for Oct 21. But it looks as though the trial might be delayed for some time due to a conflict of schedule for Merritt's lead atty:
The attorney for McStay family murder suspect Charles "Chase" Merritt told a San Bernardino Superior Court judge Friday he cannot begin trial until he finishes defending another client in a public corruption case, scheduled to begin Oct. 17 that could last seven months.
...
http://m.pe.com/articles/merritt-814087-case-mcstay.html
I didn't realize that they are seeking the DP for Merritt, they must have a decent amt of evidence for the DA to go for that?


 
No way they were killed in that house. That would be so much blood. Not even Dexter himself could clean that up. Up in flames it would go.
 
The McStay family were bludgeoned to death in 2010 and in 2018 we are still waiting for the man suspected of their gruesome murders to be brought to trial.

Shouldn't Chase Merritt be dead by now from the terminal illness he claimed to have several years back? He is the worst kind of conniving criminal who when he found himself cornered could even bring himself to reign down multiple blows on little boy heads.
 
https://www.sbsun.com/2018/01/12/sa...-suspect-to-have-more-case-files-in-his-cell/


A San Bernardino Superior Court judge ruled Friday that McStay family murder suspect Charles “Chase” Merritt will be allowed to have more of his case files in his jail cell than is normally allowed under policy.

In a motion filed with the court, Merritt’s attorneys sought a temporary injunction and temporary restraining order against the Sheriff’s Department, which operates county jails, after he was disciplined Dec. 31 for what they believed was Merritt having too many of his case files in his cell.

“Further, counsel for defendant is informed and believes that members of the Sheriff’s Department have seized or are planning to seize, and review/destroy materials kept by defendant to prevent him in assisting the preparation of his case for trial,” according to the motion, filed by attorney James McGee, who along with Rajan Maline is representing Merritt.

Deputy County Counsel Miles Kowalski, advisory counsel to the Sheriff’s Department, told Judge Michael A. Smith that Merritt was in fact disciplined for having property in his cell in excess of what is allowed, but it had nothing to do with his case file materials. He said the only thing removed from Merritt’s cell at the time were magazines, prescription pill bottles and a coffee bag.

“No discovery was removed from his cell at that time,” Kowalski said. “Discovery” is a legal term pertaining to evidence gathered and presented by both the prosecution and the defense in a criminal case.

Smith said, per the Sheriff’s Department policy, inmates are allowed to have one 15″ X 20″ accordion binder of case materials with them in their cell. Inmates representing themselves in court – pro per defendants – are allowed to have three such binders with them in their cell. But in Merritt’s case, Smith granted an exception given the voluminous amount of police reports and other documented evidence in Merritt’s file.

“Obviously, the amount of discovery in this case is much larger than the average case,” Smith said. He ruled that Merritt will be allowed to have three 15″X20″ accordion files with him in his cell, comparable to a pro per defendant. But he gave the Sheriff’s Department leeway to request a modification of Smith’s order should any problems arise warranting it.

Merritt, 58, of Homeland, stands charged with four counts of murder for the bludgeoning deaths of Joseph McStay, 40, his wife, Summer, 43, and their two sons, Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr., 3, in their Fallbrook home, in San Diego County, on or around Feb. 4, 2010. The family’s remains were discovered in two shallow graves, west of the 15 Freeway and north of Stoddard Wells Roads, on the outskirts of Victorville, in November 2013. He was arrested a year later following the discovery of human remains found buried in the Mojave Desert near Victorville, which were positively identified as that of the McStay family.

Authorities believe financial gain was the motive behind the killings. Merritt faces the death penalty if convicted.

Smith scheduled Merritt’s next hearing, a trial setting conference, for Feb. 23. Trial is expected to get underway after Easter.
 
The McStay family were bludgeoned to death in 2010 and in 2018 we are still waiting for the man suspected of their gruesome murders to be brought to trial.

Shouldn't Chase Merritt be dead by now from the terminal illness he claimed to have several years back? He is the worst kind of conniving criminal who when he found himself cornered could even bring himself to reign down multiple blows on little boy heads.
personally, I don't think he did it which someone will get on here 7 neg me again over but there are multiple reasons why the first being common sense. he has a severe heart condition, can stick around indefinitely with that, for the one question but physically he would not have even been able to move here let alone the husband. i still think there is alot more to this story ad it has been covered up and he's the fall guy. Easily drugs could be involved or the desire to use them to mule through the statuary coming from Mexico. The so called partner that had been involved in numerous scams and well as money theft before and after they disappeared as well as selling the business toa buddy [tht lived right next to where they were found and lied repeatedly] That guy, has had numerous people try to press charges against him for crimes and it never happens or they are made and then dropped. he is the one I feel was a heavy cog in all of this
 
for the one question but physically he would not have even been able to move here let alone the husband.

This is such an absurd, wild conjecture.

I mean this guy claimed to be fucking dying, yet here we are how many years later and he's sitting pretty in jail prepping his defense? Seems to me the extent of his health ailments were greatly exaggerated.
 
he has a severe heart condition, can stick around indefinitely with that, for the one question but physically he would not have even been able to move here let alone the husband.
My F-I-L had more than half his heart die in an attack when he was 35. He is still around now fourty years later with a pacemaker. And yes, his stubborn ass still moves shit all over his yard with a wheel barrel in his 70's. Where there is a will there is a way.
 
Trial starts today

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-merritt-murder-trial-20190107-story.html
Nine years after the McStay family disappeared, their accused killer heads to trial

Each item exhumed from the shallow graves — a diaper, a bra, a blanket filled with bones — led detectives to the same question.

Could this be the skeletal remains of the McStay family, who had vanished more than three years earlier?

The mysterious disappearance of a family of four whose Fallbrook home showed signs of a swift departure — uneaten bowls of popcorn on the futon, vegetables left out to rot — transfixed the nation and puzzled police until the fall of 2013, when an off-road motorcyclist discovered parts of a skull in the desert off Interstate 15 in Victorville.

Days later came a grim confirmation: The remains unearthed along with a rusty sledgehammer belonged to Joseph and Summer McStay and their two boys, Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr., 3.

On Monday, more than four years since his arrest in connection with the slayings, the family’s accused killer, Charles “Chase” Merritt, is scheduled to go on trial on murder charges in San Bernardino, marking a legal milestone on nearly a decade of tragedy.
 
In that case, we have another indication of who it was that killed them. It would have been someone who could persuade two adults and two kids to come with him into the desert....... I doubt it was someone who was a stranger to them.
People have been known to do crazy things at the round end of a gun.
 
Jury Has Reached Verdict In McStay


SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — The disappearance of a couple and their two children puzzled California investigators for years.

The McStay family vanished suddenly in 2010, with bowls of popcorn left uneaten in their house and no sign an attacker forced their way inside. Three years later, their bodies were found in shallow desert graves more than 100 miles (161 kilometers) away.

Now, a jury has reached a verdict in the murder case against 62-year-old Charles "Chase" Merritt, who authorities say killed the family with a sledgehammer after his business associate Joseph McStay tried to cut him out of a business making and selling custom water fountains.

Jurors' decision came Friday after about a week of deliberations, and it will be read in court Monday in San Bernardino.

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crim...sert-now-a-verdict/ar-AACE85u?ocid=spartanntp

 
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Phone records show McStay called Merritt seven times after the Feb. 4 meeting, with defense lawyers arguing that McStay wouldn't likely do that if he had just fired Merritt.

Yes he would. “Where’s my damn money you thief? My next call is to the cops.”
 
Didnt realize or at least didnt recall that cell phone records put him in the vicinity of the graves shortly after the killings.

No doubt about this one.

I read another article that said he grew up like 10-15 miles from where he hid the bodies and had committed crimes as near as 5 miles away. No wonder they went so hard at this guy. Almost surprising it took em this long, even given the challenges surrounding the mystery initially.
 
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