Jury in McStay family murder case will resume penalty deliberations Monday
The jury deliberating in the penalty phase of the murder trial of Charles “Chase” Merritt went home after about two hours Friday and will resume discussions at 9:30 a.m. Monday.
The San Bernardino County jury must choose between recommending a sentence of death by lethal injection or life without parole.
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 McStay family was living in Fallbrook at the time of their deaths after moving from San Clemente.
The same panel that convicted Merritt has since heard testimony from McStay family relatives, called by the prosecution, and arguments from both defense and prosecution in the penalty phase.
For the penalty phase, defense attorneys declined to present any testimony, refusing to concede the jury’s finding of McStay’s guilt.
They instead used their final argument to make a granular review of the trial’s evidence, seeking to convince the panel there was enough “lingering doubt” after conviction to vote to recommend life in prison rather than death.
“People sometimes in a collaborative effort remain quiet,” defense attorney Rajan Maline told the panel. “But they also have their own, individual opinion. And so lingering doubt allows those folks to be heard, in their own way.”
“This case is filled with unanswered questions,” Maline told the panel. “There’s not one single shred, speck, molecule – you name it of evidence, blood or otherwise, that ties Mr. Merritt to this crime. Not one,” he said.
Prosecutors have told jurors their case was circumstantial, and said Wednesday that was largely because of the time lapse between the disappearance of the family on Feb. 4, 2010 and discovery of their remains in the desert near Victorville nearly four years later.
They said Merritt was to blame for hiding and covering up the evidence and asked jurors to recommend the death penalty.
Merritt, a former Apple Valley resident, was arrested 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. A three-pound sledgehammer investigators said was used to kill the family was buried there as well.
McStay and Merritt had worked together in the sale, design and building of large-scale custom waterworks for clients that included Paul Mitchell salons. McStay found customers, and Merritt, whose business was separate from McStay’s, built the pieces.
Prosecutors said Merritt was being cut out of the relationship by McStay for poor performance, and on Feb. 1, 2010, McStay sent an email to Merritt stating Merritt owed him $42,845. The McStay family was last heard from three days later.
Investigators said Merritt looted Joseph McStay’s business bank account after he disappeared; defense attorneys said Merritt was trying to keep the business afloat in McStay’s absence.