Key prosecution evidence ‘flopped’ in McStay family murder case, defense contends
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.