Charles Merritt, McStay family killer, gets death penalty
Charles “Chase” Merritt, convicted of the 2010 bludgeoning deaths of a family of four, including two young children, was sentenced to death by a San Bernardino County judge on Tuesday, Jan. 21.
The sentence by Superior Court Judge Michael A. Smith reaffirmed the jury’s verdict and came minutes after Merritt sobbed his way through a statement in which he reasserted his innocence and vowed to someday prove it.
Merritt, 62, received life without parole for the murder of former business associate Joseph McStay Sr., 40, and death for killing McStay’s wife, Summer, 43, and their children Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr., 3. Merritt was ordered transported to San Quentin State Prison.
Merritt has lived in Rancho Cucamonga and Apple Valley in the Inland Empire. The McStay family had relocated from Orange County to Fallbrook in 2009; McStay’s water-features business, for which Merritt did design and construction work, was based in San Clemente. Joseph McStay was a graduate of Dana Hills High School.
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The judge had already rejected a motion by defense attorney Rajan Maline to reduce the jury’s death recommendations to life without parole before Merritt spoke to the court.
“The extreme violence and savagery of the nature of the killings, particularly of two small children, far outweigh the totality of the mitigating evidence,” Smith said in his ruling.
See also: No retrial for McStay family killer Charles Merritt, judge rules at sentencing
Merritt told the judge that prosecutors manipulated evidence “all simply to get a win” and addressed the approximate two dozen McStay family members in court.
“The thing that is bringing you solace is ending my life, at least for a while … for a crime that I did not commit. I loved Joseph. He was a big part of my life and my family’s life. I would never have hurt him in any way. I would never raise my hand to a woman or child. I did not do this thing. I know you do not believe this.”
His words came after McStay family members spoke.
“This despicable, evil monster,” Susan Blake, Joseph McStay Sr.’s mother, said. “You beat two precious little babies. Charles, you are a low-life coward and a baby killer.”
Said Joseph Sr.’s brother Michael, “You cannot get back time. And that was stolen from us. This world was robbed of four beautiful souls.”
Summer McStay’s ex-husband, Albert Vergara, briefly played a recording of Norman Greenbaum’s classic-rock hit “Spirit in the Sky,” which McStay had said in their younger days that she wanted to be played at her funeral.
“I want to psychologically mess you up,” Vergara told Merritt. He then pounded his fist on the lectern and said: “C’mon, Chase. Aren’t you tired? Stop all the appeals, all the shenanigans.”
Summer McStay’s sister Tracy Russell; Joseph McStay’s son Jonah, who was 12 at the time of the killings; and Michael McStay’s wife, Gaylyn, also spoke. Merritt turned in his chair to watch them speak. He did not visibly react to their statements.
Authorities once figured that the McStays voluntarily left their home about the time they disappeared, likely to live in Mexico after their SUV was found near the Tijuana border crossing and surveillance video showed a similar-looking family walking out of the U.S.
But on Nov. 13, 2013, motorcycle riders found evidence that led to the family’s remains – along with a three-pound sledgehammer – in two shallow graves in the desert north of Victorville.
The District Attorney’s Office and even the judge said the case against Merritt was built on circumstantial evidence. Maline, for his part, said there was “not a shred” of evidence against his client.
Prosecutors had said that Merritt’s cellphone was turned off during critical hours, and pings from it on Feb. 6, 2010, two days after the McStays vanished, put him in the area where the graves would be found years later.
Further, prosecutors had argued, a high-tech analysis of a video from a surveillance camera proves that Merritt’s truck left the McStay home the night of the murders, and that Merritt’s activity with McStay’s QuickBooks showed he was looting it. The theft, Deputy District Attorney Melissa Rodriguez said outside court Tuesday, was the primary motive for murder. She said prosecutors believe that McStay noticed the theft of about $40,000, and when he confronted Merritt, he and his family were killed.
In June, jurors found Merritt guilty.
Tuesday, there was more last-minute legal maneuvering on top of the defense motion Friday for a new trial. Maline sought to have Smith removed as judge for Tuesday’s motions. but Smith rejected the move because he said it was not filed on a timely basis. Smith also rejected awarding Merritt a new trial on the grounds of prosecutorial misconduct. And just before sentencing, Maline told Smith that giving a death sentence would be in conflict with the law because of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s moratorium on carrying out the death penalty. That argument, too, was rejected.
“Today is a sad day for us,” Maline said afterward outside San Bernardino Justice Center on a chilly, gray afternoon. “There has been a miscarriage of justice.”
Others saw it differently.
“Our job is to seek justice where the facts lead us,” said Deputy District Attorney Britt Imes, who sparred with Maline throughout the six-month trial. “Our job is not to seek a ‘win’ as (the defense) like to put it.”
Michael McStay said he believes his brother’s killer got a fair trial.
“The jury spoke,” he said. “No amount of posturing by an attorney will change the facts. That’s it. Case closed.”