Judge turns down defense motion to dismiss charges in McStay family murder trial

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.