CA - Joey, Summer, Gianni, Joseph Jr McStay Murders - Feb 4th 2010 #18

[citygirl]

Let me preface this by saying I like McGee and Maline. I'm not a legal eagle like Mr.J. who feels differently.Having said that I am disappointed with McGee's OS. Were I a juror I would be disappointed to find that the cadaver dogs found nothing only to find out the dogs never went in the house. Then , stating the futon cover was the only thing that tied the murders to the house. Not so according to testimony. SB allegedly stated he had no injuries. But didn't we find that out in police interviews that he had some damage to his hand? And, what happened to Vlad? Just some thoughts.

 

[mom2chloe]

Good catch. Also, one wouldn't protect carpet if it was going to be replaced with wood flooring the following week.

Chiming in that no one would use newspaper to cover carpet especially in an attempt to preserve carpet wear and/or staining since the ink from the newsprint would otherwise ruin it.

 

[Texas Red]

Yes. Curiously only his wife and her brother were the last to see him.

The only I-15 exit that had paved road assess to the location Wheeler's Pick-up truck was dumped was Stoddard Wells Rd, meaning whoever dumped the truck had to have driven within 200 yards of the location the McStay graves would eventually, 3 years later be found. This seems like more than just a coincidence to me but who knows. I'm surprised WS doesn't have a thread dedicated to Wheeler's disappearance.

 

[la2cabo]

The only I-15 exit that had paved road assess to the location Wheeler's Pick-up truck was dumped was Stoddard Wells Rd, meaning whoever dumped the truck had to have driven within 200 yards of the location the McStay graves would eventually, 3 years later be found. This seems like more than just a coincidence to me but who knows. I'm surprised WS doesn't have a thread dedicated to Wheeler's disappearance.

BBM: You can start a thread...

 

[missy1974]

The only I-15 exit that had paved road assess to the location Wheeler's Pick-up truck was dumped was Stoddard Wells Rd, meaning whoever dumped the truck had to have driven within 200 yards of the location the McStay graves would eventually, 3 years later be found. This seems like more than just a coincidence to me but who knows. I'm surprised WS doesn't have a thread dedicated to Wheeler's disappearance.

When Dr. Gray was asked if Stoddard Wells Rd was a common place where bodies are found, she said it was as common as other places along the 15...

When asked how common it was to find bodies on Stoddard Wells Rd between Victorville and Barstow (? sp), she said they are pretty frequent...

 

[la2cabo]

When Dr. Gray was asked if Stoddard Wells Rd was a common place where bodies are found, she said it was as common as other places along the 15...

When asked how common it was to find bodies on Stoddard Wells Rd between Victorville and Barstow (? sp), she said they are pretty frequent...

If you look at a satellite image of the area between Victorville, Barstow and Las Vegas there is so much open desert it's shocking remains would ever be found.

 

[Karinna]

When Dr. Gray was asked if Stoddard Wells Rd was a common place where bodies are found, she said it was as common as other places along the 15...

When asked how common it was to find bodies on Stoddard Wells Rd between Victorville and Barstow (? sp), she said they are pretty frequent...

And i'm sure Merritt being local to the areas would of known that too.

 

[Force Ten]

When Dr. Gray was asked if Stoddard Wells Rd was a common place where bodies are found, she said it was as common as other places along the 15...

When asked how common it was to find bodies on Stoddard Wells Rd between Victorville and Barstow (? sp), she said they are pretty frequent...

Yes that road covers a pretty vast area and very remote. Body dumps are in the dozens, and that's ones known about. But specifically this area, Quarry rd/Stoddard Wells, I don't think she was referencing that. Bill Wheeler is the only other one I've come across who's (possibly) met with foul play out there.

 

[Texas Red]

BBM: You can start a thread...

That's a good idea plus it would be a chance for me to make more new friends like I have on this thread.

 

[Niner]

Monday, April 29th:
*Trial continues (Day 46) (@ 9:30am PT) - CA - McStay Family: Joseph (40), Summer (43), Gianni (4) & Joey Jr (3) (Feb. 4, 2010, Fallbrook; found Nov. 11, 2013) - *Charles "Chase" Ray Merritt aka Charles Ray Mandel aka Charles Ray Morritt aka Chase Meredith (57/now 60) arrested (11/5/14) & indicted (11/7/14) of 4 counts of murder with special circumstance; plead not guilty. DP case.
Trial started 1/7/19. Dark on all Fridays. 8 women & 4 men (alternates include 4 men & 2 women).
Trial Days (1-45): (1/17/19 thru 4/25/19) reference post #853 here:
CA - Joey, Summer, Gianni, Joseph Jr McStay Murders - Feb 4th 2010 #17

Tentative Schedule for week of April 29th thru May 3rd: Court with jurors on April 29 (Monday), April 30 (Tuesday), May 1 (Wednesday) and May 2nd (Thursday). Dark on May 3rd (Friday).

 

[mrjitty]

Let me preface this by saying I like McGee and Maline. I'm not a legal eagle like Mr.J. who feels differently.Having said that I am disappointed with McGee's OS. Were I a juror I would be disappointed to find that the cadaver dogs found nothing only to find out the dogs never went in the house. Then , stating the futon cover was the only thing that tied the murders to the house. Not so according to testimony. SB allegedly stated he had no injuries. But didn't we find that out in police interviews that he had some damage to his hand? And, what happened to Vlad? Just some thoughts.

The reason I don't like the defence team is that they set out to secure perjured testimony from CJ

I took an oath in the High Court never to do something like this!

If we are to have a meaningful justice system we cannot have defence attorneys manufacturing testimony. Now sure, I get it. When your client does a murder, you don't ask about whether he did it and of course his version he gives you is largely lies. Your job as counsel is to do what you can with it.

IP guy, DNA guy, that's all fair game and its up to the judge to regulate admissibility.

But CJ is different.

3 times Maline tried to get CJ to say Chase was never paid that money. But just like us, Maline knows Chase was paid.

The Judge shot him down 3 times but it was clear CJ was never giving him this testimony anyway - which again he must have known before hand.

 

[mrjitty]

I took some days off from the case and @Tortoise 's excellent wedding dress box post was what stayed into my mind

For a long time I have believed Chase is sock puppeting the case via his counsel. So if you want to know what really happened, you just need to look at what is sensitive to Chase.

The graveside knife & rape. The wedding dress box. The 19K. Chick-Fil-A etc etc etc

These are all artefacts of the real crime.

This is poor man's Barry Roux + Oscar Show

In any crime, there are a certain number of mistakes made by the prosecution and especially by the witnesses. The puppet master seeks to reconstruct his defence in these areas of uncertainty. So our dear friend Oscar P nearly skated for murder because of an honest mistake whereby multiple witnesses confused cricket bat bangs with gun shots. Everything flowed from it, to the point that direct line of site witnesses were told that the women they heard screaming for many minutes was in fact poor Oscar.

This case is the same, except the first iterations are much clearer to us. Back when Summer was a nasty piece of work and it wasn't Joey in the border crossing video. But of course we can't pretend it was Summer anymore. So now Dan is the proxy.

Chase never has any agency in all this. He variously never answers the last call, which he also never remembers. He doesn't remember if/why would he be driving at 9.30pm. The invisible man.

Fascinating stuff.

 

[mrjitty]

Which makes a lot more sense as if you are going to claim something then prove it or don’t mention it.

I prefer it, but then our system is a bit different.

e.g. we don't have counsel objecting to every sentence, because the Judge will usually be far more active in controlling procedure. In the US there is much more scope for grandstanding by counsel.

Indeed on my bar course, the instructors were quick to say we should forget everything we saw on American TV

Especially the classic

"Objection your honor/ Withdrawn!"

 

[Mica]

If you look at a satellite image of the area between Victorville, Barstow and Las Vegas there is so much open desert it's shocking remains would ever be found.

Yes, but isn’t the Victorville area known for off road vehicle/biking?

 

[Tortoise]

I took some days off from the case and @Tortoise 's excellent wedding dress box post was what stayed into my mind

For a long time I have believed Chase is sock puppeting the case via his counsel. So if you want to know what really happened, you just need to look at what is sensitive to Chase.

The graveside knife & rape. The wedding dress box. The 19K. Chick-Fil-A etc etc etc

These are all artefacts of the real crime.

This is poor man's Barry Roux + Oscar Show

In any crime, there are a certain number of mistakes made by the prosecution and especially by the witnesses. The puppet master seeks to reconstruct his defence in these areas of uncertainty. So our dear friend Oscar P nearly skated for murder because of an honest mistake whereby multiple witnesses confused cricket bat bangs with gun shots. Everything flowed from it, to the point that direct line of site witnesses were told that the women they heard screaming for many minutes was in fact poor Oscar.

This case is the same, except the first iterations are much clearer to us. Back when Summer was a nasty piece of work and it wasn't Joey in the border crossing video. But of course we can't pretend it was Summer anymore. So now Dan is the proxy.

Chase never has any agency in all this. He variously never answers the last call, which he also never remembers. He doesn't remember if/why would he be driving at 9.30pm. The invisible man.

Fascinating stuff.

Yeah the wedding dress box (murder in the house) and notice too how they avoid the paint on the bra and the hammer like the plague.

It's not in their opening statement. It's nowhere to be found in Mr Beasley's report.

He spent an hour splashing vampire blood around the courtroom to show the jury different patterns he didn't have to examine in this case, but show him the horizontal paint drips on the bra and he can't proffer an opinion. The crime scene expert who examined the bra in person and in photographs but wouldn't be able to say whether Summer was upright when the paint got on there, it ran into drips and the drips dried.

One word sums up this defense - disingenuous.



MOO

 

[mrjitty]

Yeah the wedding dress box (murder in the house) and notice too how they avoid the paint on the bra and the hammer like the plague.

It's not in their opening statement. It's nowhere to be found in Mr Beasley's report.

He spent an hour splashing vampire blood around the courtroom to show the jury different patterns he didn't have to examine in this case, but show him the horizontal paint drips on the bra and he can't proffer an opinion. The crime scene expert who examined the bra in person and in photographs but wouldn't be able to say whether Summer was upright when the paint got on there, it ran into drips and the drips dried.

One word sums up this defense - disingenuous.

View attachment 181698

MOO

Going through your opening transcript is actually fascinating - e.g. "the 4 killers"

or this wee gem

Merritt had a practice of doing business with EIP between him and Joseph, after handling something for Joseph Merritt would always call him to update. So he wrote four cheques and deleted them at 12.39 then he calls and leaves a message ten minutes later – ‘Hey it’s done’.

I am sure McGee will call Chase to testify that was the content of the call

 

[asyousay]

But why would you delete what you are doing that’s not how Joey ran his business?

Unless Chase wants to go with Joey was doing business in a unhand way?

 

[oceanblueeyes]

Self delete.

 

[oceanblueeyes]

But why would you delete what you are doing that’s not how Joey ran his business?

Unless Chase wants to go with Joey was doing business in a unhand way?

None of it makes sense asyousay, because Joey wouldn't ever run his business this way.

Imo

 

[mrjitty]

But why would you delete what you are doing that’s not how Joey ran his business?

Unless Chase wants to go with Joey was doing business in a unhand way?

Either way, the defence has to place it in evidence.

You can't claim deleting cheques was the ordinary course of business without solid evidence of the same.

In the end, only one of the men is still alive to testify what the practice was.

the other man found himself in a shallow grave in the desert with his family

Aren’t wedding dresses usually stored in a box??