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

[asyousay]

Chase can try and explain his actions away as much as he wants.

The fact remains that it looks like he was trying to conceal his actions.

He writes out cheques and deletes them

Calls the Quick Book company pretending to be a dead person and asks them to delete them.

 

[Longtimenoc]

Agree, and he probably never thought he would be caught with what he did. And he didn't get caught for a few years until it all came back to bite him.

If it hadn't been for the bike rider...

 

[Karinna]

If it hadn't been for the bike rider...

Yes exactly. As horrific as it is, at least the rest of the families now know what happened to their loved ones and could properly lay them to rest. It must be dreadful to never know, and always be wondering and searching for answers, IMO.

 

[Longtimenoc]

I believe they were told not to make personal notes in their notebooks. The notebooks are taken by the court at the end of deliberations and can be reviewed by the defense and prosecution I believe.

But what good would taking notes be if you can't use them? To think about during the testimony but not during deliberations? It kind of makes sense that notes can be inaccurate and those kind of notes could be used to mislead during deliberations. But what is the purpose of note taking?

 

[missy1974]

I don’t understand—not to make notes on them? Do you mean some sort of reference notes, like what was said at 10:52 am?

(I agree that they don’t get the transcripts, but I just found the law that sounds as though they can make notes to their hearts’ content.)

Sorry, I should have been more clear... not to make any notes on the actual transcripts that they were given to follow along. They could make notes still though.

 

[katydid23]

This was what he told DuGal on Feb 17th -


CM: And then talked about QuickBooks…

TD: QuickBooks Online, decided to delete and start QuickBooks Pro 2010, credit card for purchasing QuickBooks,

CM: He gave me the credit card number.

TD: What’s the, do you know his credit card number?

CM: I, you know, I did the QuickBooks Pro, and I threw the credit card, that’s all I needed it for.

[snip]

TD: Was it prior to February 4th?

CM: No, no, no it was 2, 3 or 4 days after February 4th that I actually bought the QuickBooks. Joseph and I sat down and talked about the QuickBooks because Summer um Summer didn’t know how much money Joseph actually made, she never did um and one of, one of Summer’s biggest problems is credit cards I mean she, she was, she spent a lot of money um, she goes to Ross all the time, things like that, so it was, it’s a big thing, it was, it had become a big thing um, with Joseph not letting her know exactly how much money he was making because when she…

It just makes no sense, that he hasn't spoken to his boss for 5 days, doesn't know where he is, and he usually speaks to him 10 times a day----and then he dec ides it is a good time to do an 'errand' for his boss, and cancel his QB online account.

Why bother with that when the family is missing?

 

[missy1974]

He testified that it could and more importantly that was also accepted by the defense.

I've also checked it out by searching up how to access quickbooks remotely - which relates to the desktop version.

So I wonder why the defense called his supervisor and she said something different?

 

[mrjitty]

BBM. Because Chase deleted the record of them being written and backdated and was betting (no pun intended) that no one would look that far into the QB. He didn't realize a record for it being deleted would be there. So him cashing the checks dated Feb 4, he thought he was scot-free.

Yes - it is also an indicator of guilt

the only person this would not deceive was Joey himself - but Joey was dead

i think @Tortoise is correct that he was planning to kill the family already

 

[Frankie Hellis]

But what good would taking notes be if you can't use them? To think about during the testimony but not during deliberations? It kind of makes sense that notes can be inaccurate and those kind of notes could be used to mislead during deliberations. But what is the purpose of note taking?

You cannot have the transcribed notes from someone’s testimony specifically because it is their verbal testimony that is legal evidence. That is why the judge told them not to write on the transcribed testimony they were handed when one of the witness’ audio was played. It was the audio that was entered into testimony, not the witness’ transcribed words. The jurors were not permitted to keep the transcribed words.

This is also why the judge states that the jurors can take notes, but not to the extent that they might miss the inflections of facial gestures or whatnot that can be seen during actual testimony.

I do think their notebooks they write in are permitted to be with them during deliberations. Other than that, any testimony they want to revisit I believe is played for them and not transcribed.

 

[katydid23]

I don't think the defense is even disputing it happened lol They are saying only really disputing 'why' it happened or disputing it was for the reasons that the State is saying...

From everything I've heard in the trial... the prosecution says Merritt did all the QB's stuff himself, and then called QB's, ordered QB's pro and wanted to delete the online QB's account. The defense is saying... Joey did the stuff before the 5th, Merritt did the stuff afterwards and ordered QB's Pro, asked about transferring the data from online to the QB's Pro, then asked about deleting the online account or cancelling QB's online. The State says it was to "hide" what he did.... the Defense is saying Joey and Merrritt were doing it to "hide" it from someone (Dan) who was looking at the accounts online.

My only problem with the State saying it was to "hide" what he did... how does it hide the actual cheques that were cashed? They not only went to MSM who put them in the bank, but went to Merritt's bank and then to Joey's bank, so there is record of it regardless of whether it was in QB's or not. Deleting it from QB's didn't do anything at the bank. If it was a cheque ledger, you could erase it, but it doesn't make it not happen lol (I WISH LOL)

I think CM was worried about the checks that he created and then backdated. He knew that would be an issue if the investigators ever saw the QB ledger, because even though it was deleted,
it was still. traceable. He had no explanatio0n for those actions so he wanted to take down the online records, hoping LE never would see them. JMO

 

[mrjitty]

The defence haven't explained why the cheques were deleted, let alone back dated

 

[katydid23]

The defense should ask, where is and what happened to the voice recording of the call? All calls such as this are recorded, if the recording can't be produced, make issue of it 'if it doesn't fit you must acquit'. Concerning the call metadata and phone records, it may have been difficult in 2010 to clone a phone but it wasn't unheard of especially, among them involved in the illicit drug trade.
Phone cloning - Wikipedia

Chase already admitted to making the calls to QBooks. Why would the defense argue about something they already admitted to?

 

[smr]

it is also an indicator of guilt

RSBM

Is there anything, whatsoever, about CM that is not an indicator of guilt?

 

[Tortoise]

So I wonder why the defense called his supervisor and she said something different?

She wasn't asked that specific question.

I believe she said some people were nervous about having their information online or stored in the cloud and were more comfortable with desktop but that's not the same as saying desktop can't be accessed remotely.

ETA I can't imagine Rodriguez asking a question like that either without already knowing what the answer is.

 

[Force Ten]

I think CM was worried about the checks that he created and then backdated. He knew that would be an issue if the investigators ever saw the QB ledger, because even though it was deleted,
it was still. traceable. He had no explanatio0n for those actions so he wanted to take down the online records, hoping LE never would see them. JMO

Yes he probably realized, even though he deleted the checks, there was still a record. That's why he called QB. It's just mind numbing how much of Chase's actual digital fingerprints are all over this. Its really not very complex when you get right down to the fundamental evidence.

 

[Force Ten]

RSBM

Is there anything, whatsoever, about CM that is not an indicator of guilt?

Do you think him backdating checks to the only day proof of life isn't an indicator?

Pretty revealing imo.

 

[katydid23]

So I wonder why the defense called his supervisor and she said something different?

I was not impressed by her testimony. She remembered very little about her job there. And she was not 'his' supervisor, per se. She was 'a' supervisor in the company at the time. I dont think she did much to rebut his testimony.

She tried to, by saying it was 'not unusual' to do what he asked, but IIRC, at the very end of her testimony, during cross, she admitted otherwise, saying that it was unusual, for someone not closing down or going bankrupt, to want to erase all the online records, without already having the other QB up and running---which he hadn't done yet.

 

[Tortoise]

The defence haven't explained why the cheques were deleted, let alone back dated

Yeah but can you imagine Miss Rodriguez if their accountant had testified to an explanation for that?

We'd have seen pieces of him chewed up all over the courtroom.

 

[katydid23]

RSBM

Is there anything, whatsoever, about CM that is not an indicator of guilt?

Very little. That's why he is sitting where he is.

 

[mrjitty]

Yeah but can you imagine Miss Rodriguez if their accountant had testified to an explanation for that?

We'd have seen pieces of him chewed up all over the courtroom.

LOL

it's very revealing that Forensic dude didn't bother to explain how Joey logged cheques, nor what he used the custom QB for exactly