Jury recommends death for Charles ‘Chase’ Merritt in McStay family slaying

Jurors on Monday recommended death for Charles “Chase” Merritt, convicted June 10 in the murders of the four-member McStay family, who disappeared from their Fallbrook home in February 2010 and were found buried in shallow desert graves nearly four years later.

San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Michael A. Smith set Sept. 27 as the date in which Merritt will be formally sentenced.

Merritt, 62, was convicted June 10 of first-degree murder in the deaths of former business associate Joseph McStay, 40, his wife, Summer, 43, and their two children, Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr., 3. Jurors also agreed with a special circumstance of multiple murders.

The panel’s recommendations were for the death penalty in the slayings of Summer McStay, Gianni, and Joseph Jr., but life in prison without parole for Joseph McStay. Attorneys for both sides said afterward the panel did not explain the split.

Prosecutors during the trial told jurors, Joseph McStay was edging Merritt out of their water-feature sales and production business partnership.

San Bernardino County Supervising Deputy District Attorney Britt Imes, during the penalty phase, told jurors that perhaps the boys’ slayings could be seen as “cold, callous, collateral damage.”

And for Summer McStay, “Is it that strong-willed, outspoken person who is maybe interfering with his business relationship, with his gravy train? That becomes a very personal motive,” Imes said.

Defense attorneys declined to present any testimony during the penalty phase, refusing to concede the jury’s finding of Merritt’s guilt, and instead calling on them to consider any lingering doubts they may have had about the circumstantial case.

Prosecutor Sean Daugherty, leaving the courthouse, was asked if jurors explained the mixed recommendations.

“Not really,” he said. “They were very thorough and very thoughtful with what they did.”

Merritt defense attorney Jacob Guerard said outside court jurors also did not explain to him their reasons for splitting their recommendations. The panel did tell the defense, “we did a really good job, but it wasn’t enough,” he said.

Only one juror walked by a group of reporters waiting outside the courthouse. She declined to talk. Guerard said the other members of the panel left the courthouse by another route.

McStay’s mother, Susan Blake and brother, Michael McStay, and other family friends were on the prosecution side of the courtroom Monday afternoon. Someone from that side said, “Thank you, jury” after the panel was dismissed and leaving the room.

The two rows for Merritt family members were nearly empty; the two women occupying the space appeared to be from the defense team. If Merritt had family members in the courtroom, they were not in those rows.

Merritt put his hands to face a few times as the recommendations were read.

“We’re not surprised on the recommendations, given the verdict,” defense attorney Rajan Maline said by phone later. “Life without parole for Joseph and death for the others didn’t make a lot of sense for me, but a lot of things in this case don’t make sense to me.”

Maline repeated his insistence that Merritt “is innocent, he didn’t do this, and the battle doesn’t end here.” Merritt’s appeal is automatic, and the defense team is working already to line up appeals counsel for their client, he said.

Merritt was arrested and charged 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. Merritt is a former Apple Valley resident.

Merritt and McStay worked together to sell large-scale water features; McStay found customers and Merritt assembled the works.

Prosecutors say McStay told Merritt on Feb. 1, 2010 that Merritt owed him $42,845, and at the time the McStay family disappeared, Joseph McStay was cutting Merritt out of the business because of poor performance.

They say Merritt tried to loot McStay’s business bank accounts just before and then after McStay’s death, and it’s believed McStay cut ties with Merritt after a Feb. 4, 2010 meeting the defense says took place in Rancho Cucamonga, where Merritt lived at the time.

Defense attorneys say the two men were best friends and prospects for Merritt’s work with McStay were too lucrative to support that theory.