CA - Joey, Summer, Gianni, Joseph Jr McStay Murders - Feb 4th 2010 #2

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- 4 - PROSECUTOR'S OPENING SPEECH

CHARLES MERRITT’S INTERVIEW WITH SDSD

They learned that Joseph had someone by the name of Charles Merritt that had done work with him and in fact was at the house with Mike McStay two days before the missing persons’ report. They also learned that Charles Merritt was the one that alerted Joseph’s mother on February 9th. So they went to interview Charles Merritt. This is approximately 48 hours maybe a little bit less maybe a little bit more after San Diego detectives first learned that this family even exists, so keep in mind. So they went to the defendant’s residence, he lived in Rancho Cucamonga, at a complex near Church Street, basically condos, town homes, apartment type complex. They met with him there, he made clear that Joseph was EIP and that he was IDesign and that he did most but not all of the custom fountains that Joseph’s company did. And he says the following – (recording played)

Joseph – Jos - Joseph was one of my best friends [inaudible] obviously and my business associate and that’s not something I wanna live with, so ​

Detectives asked him about Joseph’s relationship with Summer

You say about his wife did he love her?​

oh yeah yeah, he definitely loved her, um, he, she’s a pain in the butt, um, he was pussy-whipped.​

Any domestic violence did you ever observe?​

Never, Joseph was [answer cut]​

They next asked about basic questions again it’s a missing persons’ investigation they’re still in the first 2 days of this how tall Joseph was and how much he weighed, weighs.

How tall is he and how much does he weigh?​

Shorter than me I can actually tell you about what he weighed only because I..one of these articles here said his weight was 175 but he was 5 – 8 [5’8”] I would guess, he was I mean that’s about 5-8 isn’t it? ​

No [inaudible] about 5-6 so​

He was – he was definitely, definitely shorter than me (laughs).​

Next they asked about the condition of the house, if he had seen it, in particular that light that was in Joseph’s study that I showed you the photograph of, he was asked about that.

But I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt I know for a fact that that light I had never seen it off. Ok, he always leaves, he always left it on, because his kids get up in the middle of the night and they go downstairs and get water out of the, out of the refrigerator and he always left that light on and the door open so that they didn’t fall down the stairs.​

They asked him questions about the children, Gianni and Joseph jr,

Always [inaudible] these kids because his boys were I mean they would get up on the kitchen​

I saw a video on youtube,…[inaudible] I saw how energetic they are.​

that’s a good word for it, ​

[inaudible] corporal punishment?​

No she didn’t believe in it, didn’t believe in any kind of corporal, she, I swear she would go stop it, stop it, stop it she would do that for half an hour until they lost interest in whatever they were doing and go about doing something else. (laughing) It was, oh god [inaudible], yeah.​

They asked about those vehicles that I showed you earlier, the green Dodge and the white Trooper, where they were typically parked.

Do you know where… park the car the white SUV? [some parts inaudible]​

Directly in front of the house on the street. She always parked the truck in the driveway. She didn’t like him parking the white car next to it because she couldn’t get the kids in or out. ​

You might be asking or wondering why is he playing these clips? And why did I stress, why does he keep stressing two times that the sheriff’s department’s only known about this case for less than 48 hours. Because you may have noticed something about some of those clips, you may have noticed something about his speech in those clips, this is their first contact with him. SDSD noticed and this is what they said and this was his response:

Do you have any knowledge or information …[dead?]​

No. ​

…ask because you have used the past tense …you said Jo was, typically people don’t do that..alive​

Yeah​

Any explanation as to why you may have done that?​

No, not really I just… no, I ​

And further:

It’s interesting because we deal with .. all the time and oftentimes they all will notify them their loved one is dead and they will still use the present tense because it really hasn’t set in. That’s why I’m asking you, you used past tense a couple of times it’s really unusual.​

Yeah. I have no idea, you know I’m not sure what, what I used past tense in context with er.. I have no idea why.​

You said Jo was my best friend.​

Oh. I did.​

You did.​

I don’t know why.​

No one knows that they’re dead. San Diego’s conducting a missing persons’ investigation and he’s saying Joseph was my best friend. He’s saying the kids were energetic. In fact if you notice on one clip he corrects himself and says Joseph always leaves Joseph always left that light on. You’ll hear the entire interview, and you’ll hear that he does slip in and out.

[playback interference]
 
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- 5 - PROSECUTOR'S OPENING SPEECH

FINANCIALS

Audio of CM;

“right now behind, well actually right now we’re pretty much even because these two projects …$173,000 is what he has paid me $158,000 is what he owed me before these two projects, came to I owe him $15,000. [inaudible] with these two projects ..$26,000. So he was then owing me a little over $10,000, somewhere almost $11,000.”​


This is the email he provides San Diego and it’ll become important here in a little bit as well - February 1st at 11.42 am. What he doesn’t mention as he’s trying to explain this to these I’m sure very tired detectives who’ve been working two days trying to find this family, is he never mentions that the total that he owes Joseph is $42,845. Not Joseph owing him $11,000.

Chase paid $173,255, owed $158,000 has been overpaid $15,045, plus $27,800. He doesn’t mention that when he’s explaining and what he ends up saying is Joseph’s gonna owe me $11,000 after these two projects. Because 26K minus 15K is about 11K.


FEBRUARY 19TH – SEARCH WARRANT


Two days later on February 19th, SDSD secures a search warrant at the Avocado Vista residence. In the interim a few things had happened. Joseph’s mother Susan Blake had been to the residence and cleaned up, Mike, Joseph’s brother had been, in his mind he’d been given permission to take the computers out, he took computers out, when he was told by detective DuGal bring them back we have a search warrant he brought them back. So the house looks different than it did on 15th.

This is the entryway to the house, this is the front room as you walk into the entryway, this is the carpet, the doorway to the residence is in the upper right, there’s what appears to be some kind of stain, bleach stain on the carpet, Summer’s Ugg boots it appears were outside on the porch and there’s sandals here. This is the kitchen area you’ll notice here by the island, half of the island has blue painter’s tape, you’ll notice here on this table there’s a calculator, and you’ll notice that all of the drawers that were there when deputy Tingley was there have been put back in.

You’ll notice a paint can, more painter’s tape, and this is the front room and in the back corner of the residence is a futon. Several items here on the kitchen counter, this is a picture of the futon. The futon appeared to be missing a cover. Evidence obtained from the McStay’s computer shows that it had a cover it was an off-white woven material type cover. This table, again with the calculator, pay close attention to the evidence about this table. Again blue painter’s tape around the downstairs bathroom, a I don’t know how you describe that, shaggy toilet bowl cover with no accompanying floor mat, this is one of the upstairs bathrooms with newspaper, painter’s tape – again not completed. This is the entryway into Joseph’s downstairs office – there’s the blinds that Mike McStay came in through that window, across from the desk is a closet.

Placard 16 here denotes Earth Inspired Products cheques. The top cheque was 4245.
 
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- 6 - PROSECUTOR'S OPENING SPEECH

SURVEILLANCE VIDEO

San Diego investigators also obtained a surveillance video from the neighbour across the street. Her name was Jennifer Mitchley. She said, of course during the initial missing persons they’re talking to neighbours they’re talking to everybody they can, she found, something happened on the video on her surveillance video so she brought it to San Diego’s attention. San Diego went and recovered a very small portion of the night of February 4th. They didn’t obtain all of February 4th, or the days thereafter they just obtained a very small portion and the rest of it doesn’t exist anymore.

But from that residence what you’re going to see is a video. You’re going to see a car pass down the cul-de-sac, you’re going to see headlights turn on from the McStay residence which is here by the grey marker, you’re going to see a vehicle come out and park, or not park but hit its brakes, approximately where that vehicle is there on that photograph. That’s not the vehicle this is a Google Earth image. Draw your attention to the upper right of the screen, to the lower left that’s Ms Mitchley’s porch and this video was from 7.47 on the night of February 4th.

(video played) The vehicle passes, the headlights will come on, and the car hits the brakes. Investigators initially believed this was the family’s Isuzu Trooper and we’ll discuss that a bit further as we go. Well, spoiler alert, the Trooper doesn’t have a exhaust pipe on the passenger side.


DISCOVERY OF THE BODIES

San Diego detectives continued to investigate the case. There were a lot of leads that went nowhere, there was a lot of sightings of the family that didn’t pan out, there was some indication the family may have gone across the border given the location of their vehicle, nothing really panned out for San Diego. They were given a certain set of facts and those facts boxed them in. At some point they packaged up their evidence and turned it over to the FBI. And actually that was shortly before November 11th 2013.

On November 11th 2013 at a location in the High Desert in the Victor Valley area just west of the 15 freeway a motorcycle rider was riding his dirt bike, his name is John Bluth, to the southwest of – this particular freeze of the screen is a landfill, a dump, and to the right there you can see the 15 freeway. Mr Bluth was riding his dirt bike and he called the police.

Recording of 911 call played: “Hi, I’m out here on a motorcycle out behind the dump and I found what looks like a human skull.”

Police arrived, they obviously began a search. The homicide team went out and over the course of about 2 or 3 days they began searching the area for any human bones or anything else. And they found two graves. It’s tough to see here, right in this area here. Towards the top of that photograph that’s the 15 freeway, the [?] trucks are heading northbound, towards Vegas and the 15 freeway. This area is depressed, it can’t be seen from the freeway, you can see cars from there but the cars can’t see you. Two graves, you’ll see one in the lower left quadrant and one towards the middle towards the top. this area here on the left of the photograph is the landfill/the dump, this mountain to the right will become important here in a little bit, on the other side of that mountain is a town called Oro Grande and again this is a view facing westbound and these are the graves here in the middle of this photograph, or at least one of the graves.
 
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- 7 - PROSECUTOR'S OPENING SPEECH

THE GRAVES

They began the painstaking process of going through the graves, they located several items of potential evidentiary value outside of the graves, including a towel that appeared to be torn, a piece of woven off-white cloth, the right cup of a black bra, and in this photograph it doesn’t look black this is outside of the grave after 3 years. They divvied them up just for organisation’s sake into grave A and grave B.

In grave A was an adult male, Joseph McStay Sr. Also along with him was Gianni, the 4 year old. Grave A had been disturbed by animal activity, quite a bit of animal activity and in fact both of Joseph’s lower bones, his lower leg bones were located outside of the grave. There is a piece of material [tape jumps] and they attempt to go layer by layer as they do this collecting anything or noting anything that they find. We begin to see Joseph’s ribs, they’re in the center of the photograph, and to the upper right quadrant is his head. As they dug further they found that he was wrapped with white electrical cord, he also had across his lower body a red, what appeared to be a tie-down strap, and he was encased in a woven type fabric. Here you can see the red tie-down strap and the cord. To the right is his ribs and his head area. Another view of the cord and the tie-down strap. To the left here by the compass would be where his lower legs are you can tell they’re no longer attached.

In grave B was Summer McStay, and her baby, Jo Jr. It was not as disturbed as grave A. It did have a piece of shaggy type material as they dug deeper they found Summer’s pants and her underwear near her head, and this is her head with her hair. That’s a closer view of her underwear and sweats, and the sweats were unfurled at the San Bernardino county crime lab and had what appeared to be bleach stains on them. Also in that grave was a black backpack and one of the boys always wore a black backpack. Inside of the backpack was a paintbrush, a pick and a child’s spoon. The paintbrush had white paint on it and on the McStay’s home computer there’s a photograph of Jo Jr. holding a paintbrush that looks almost identical to that one. Also in that grave was a 3lb Stanley sledgehammer. The sledgehammer had on its handle white paint. The left cup of Summer’s black bra was found under her body. She was lying face down almost on her side. The black bra had on it a white paint drip that’s not dripping as if she was painting while standing up but if she was on her side – the paint’s dripping to the side. That paint was sampled along with the paint on the hammer by the FBI’s lab. The FBI determined that it was consistent with the same source – the paint on the hammer and the paint on the bra.


TYRE TRACKS


There was also two tyre tracks – there was rainy weather on February 5th as I recall, in the High Desert. Two tyre tracks, each set leading to the graves and they measured 73 and 76 inches, which is not consistent with the Trooper. There’s the other set of tyre tracks. The reason I say consistent with rainy muddy weather is it had been 3 years, over 3 years since the family went missing.
 
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- 8 - PROSECUTOR'S OPENING SPEECH

AUTOPSIES


The autopsies were conducted along with the excavation with the assistance of a forensic anthropologist by the name of Dr. Alexis Gray, she was out there collecting bones helping with the excavation and her role is to figure out what bone it is, what part of the body it is and what person it goes with, male female child adult. So the autopsies took place over the course of a number of days.

Joseph McStay Jr. – this was all that was left of Joseph McStay Jr, the baby. The skull piece found by Mr Bluth, several fragments and three rib bones, one of which this middle one was found in the grave with Summer. Also in the grave with Summer was a diaper and a cell phone case.

Gianni McStay – these are his remains, no clothing was found for Joseph Jr., only a pair of shorts was found that was associated with Gianni. This is a view of Gianni’s skull, showing fracture along the suture that a child has in their head. He died of multiple blunt force impacts to the head. He had multiple skull fractures each side and the back and in the front.

Autopsy was performed by Dr Chanikarn Changsri of the San Bernardino county coroners’ office. This was another impact site on Gianni’s skull.

Summer McStay – what you’re looking at here is all that remains of Summer McStay, essentially several pieces of skull, her jaw, the clothing here is on the upper part of this and the lower part here was a clump of material that looked consistent with painter’s tape – you can tell a blue – you’ll see better pictures of it during the evidence. Blue painter’s tape. Summer’s, essentially the pieces of Summer’s skull, they placed them together and realised she had multiple jaw fractures, she’d been hit in the front of her face fracturing her jaw in several places. She was also struck in the back of the head and in the front of the head numerous times.

Joseph McStay Sr. was again entombed in this woven type material. He was the most preserved, of the bodies. Here’s a view of his lower body, you’ll see his lower legs are bleached white from being outside of the grave, behind his head was this extension cord that was knotted, Joseph McStay had a f [video jumps] which you can see in the middle of the photograph, you can also see to the left the red tie-down strap and the electrical cord. On the back of his head was a clear impact site for blunt force trauma, on the back right of his head, he also had them on the back left; on the front; as well as the ribs and the..so here’s a view of the left side of his head, and the back the fracture, as well as his tibia the shinbone on the lower left leg had been fractured as well. Consistent with a strike from the front and the bone breaks towards the back.

All four members of the McStay family were killed by blunt force trauma to the head.
 
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- 9 - PROSECUTOR'S OPENING SPEECH

QUICKBOOKS

So San Bernardino county sheriffs took over the investigation because the bodies were located in SB county. They began work, essentially they formed a team made up of individuals from another homicide team and they were placed on this case to investigate only this case. And they did it for over a year. And they learned some interesting things about what had occurred on the 1st thru the 3rd of February. They obtained Joseph’s QuickBooks records. Now if you’re not familiar with QuickBooks you will be by the end of this. QuickBooks is a online basically ledger. You can create cheques, you can create invoices, you can add cash payments, you can do all sorts of things and it shows up on a ledger.

Joseph had two QuickBooks accounts that were associated with each other. One for the prefabricated fountains, one for the custom fountains. The custom fountains was relatively new, there aren’t a whole lot of entries, but it had been going on for about a year, a year or two, on the custom side. And the prefabricated side went on a lot longer.


FEBRUARY 1ST

They looked at Joseph’s QuickBooks records and what they found was on February 1st his QuickBooks was accessed. Remember during the course of the defendant’s interview and he said Joseph brought me cheques and I said wait a minute three days earlier he was already writing cheques, this was what they found.

They found that within 42 minutes of receiving that email from Joseph ‘hey I’ve overpaid you $42,845’ within 45 minutes within that hour Joseph’s QuickBooks was accessed. At 12.24 pm on February 1st – this was not done from any of the computers seized from the McStay residence – a vendor was added, charles merritt, all lower case. Joseph McStay when he entered a business or a person would always capitalise the first letter properly, of the words. charles merritt was added as a vendor at 12.24 on February 1st. What’s also interesting is that for a person familiar with the program they would know that Charles Merritt properly capitalised was already a vendor and would simply be a pulldown menu, pulldown entry into the records.

A cheque was created at 12.34 for $2,500 to charles merritt. Another cheque was created on February 1st for $2,500 to charles merritt at 12.37. The second cheque was printed and then deleted. Now what happens when you delete a cheque on QuickBooks is it won’t show up on the ledger. So if you deleted the cheque it’s not going to show up cheque number blah blah, where it will show is in the account activity, that all of this activity happened. A cheque was printed and deleted – the first cheque that was created was no. 4093 the second cheque was no. 4092, this one was for $2500 – that cheque was deleted.


FEBRUARY 2ND

Neither of those cheques were cashed or deposited but the next day someone logs in to Joseph’s QuickBooks accounts, to EIP’s QuickBooks accounts – it’s not from any of the McStay’s computers – and two cheques are added to guess who, charles merritt, printed and deleted. On the custom side of the account Joseph had never deleted a cheque. Not only did he properly capitalise names he had never deleted a cheque. But on February 2nd on the custom account, cheques were deleted. That was a cheque for zero dollars, that cheque was printed then was deleted, and then there was another cheque for $2,495, that cheque was printed and deleted, and that same day February 2nd was cashed at Union Bank - this is the cheque here in the lower half (shown on screen).

Now what’s interesting about that is the date February 2nd that it was cashed at Union Bank – deposit [?] here SA might mean Saudi Arabia, I should back up they had a project they were going to build a fountain in Saudi Arabia, all lower case on the charles merritt – what’s interesting is on that same date February 2nd that’s the date that McGyver was at the house helping them paint and he left on February 3rd and he couldn’t come back ‘til the 6th and Jos..Summer got mad, they’ll tell you, she was mad, he kept asking her and that’s when he realised they’re not contacting me back, she must really be mad or something happened, but in any event he was there on the 2nd and he [video cuts] on the 2nd, Joseph gave Charles Merritt a handwritten cheque for $100, not a handwritten cheque for $2,595 but a handwritten cheque on February 2nd for $100. That was deposited into a bank account that was created on February 3rd by Charles Merritt.

The large cheque, all lower case charles merritt was cashed. February 4th is the last day the McStays were heard from.
 
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- 10 - PROSECUTOR'S OPENING SPEECH

CELL PHONES

So what I’m going to do is take kind of an analysis of both QuickBooks, other evidence including cell phones – you’re going to hear from Kevin Boles, Kevin Boles is a Special Agent with the FBI, he has worked previously on their fugitive taskforce, when someone runs from the law and they had a cell phone he would work on locating them based on their cell phone records, and he’s done a lot of work in this area.

So those records were given to him, those being Joseph’s cell phone records and the defendant’s cell phone records were given to Kevin Boles for an analysis.

FEBRUARY 4TH

What he found was that on February 4th at 11.51 Joseph calls a number 949-492-8090 that is associated with Joseph’s bank in San Clemente the Union Bank in San Clemente. He doesn’t call that number all that often, he has called it in the past around the time they were buying the house they were moving in, he doesn’t call it all that often.

A few minutes later he calls the phone number associated with the defendant 374-0102 two minutes later he calls the defendant.

After that 11.56 he signs into his QuickBooks and then signs out two minutes later. At this point that February 2nd cheque has cleared the bank. After he logs out of QuickBooks and not having seen the cheque because it was deleted on the ledger again calls his bank at 12.15. That’s a different number, same bank.

While he’s doing this he’s travelling 15 northbound in the general area of Lake Elsinore.

He arrives in the Rancho Cucamonga area and his cell phone is communicating with towers in the Rancho Cucamonga area – at 12.52 there’s a call to the defendant, at 1.01 there’s another call to the defendant and at 3.03 is the last time that his phone makes contact with that tower in Rancho Cucamonga.

This was the day of the meeting at Chick-fil-A, Chick-fil-A is in that general area, however Joseph’s internet access during that two hour period is almost constant – internet access on his phone.

After the 12.52 phone call to the defendant, between 12.52 and 1.01, there are 13 frantic phone calls, primarily from the defendant to his, who he called his wife, who was actually his girlfriend Catherine Jarvis, she lived with him there in Rancho Cucamonga. And if you’ll notice there’s a call at 12.52, 12.54 another one at 12.54, 12.55, 12.56, 12.57 another one at 12.57, 12.58, 12.59, finally she calls him back at 1.00, that’s all in a period of nine minutes.

5.48 PM JOSEPH’S PHONE IN FALLBROOK CALLS MERRITT THEN MERRITT’S PHONE GOES OFF GRID

Between 3.03 pm and 3.07 pm, if there was a meeting it would be after the meeting, Joseph calls the defendant seven times during that time period. The longest call – lasting two minutes and 37 seconds – was at 5.48 pm that night. Joseph’s phone is again travelling southbound back home, that 5.48 phone call he’s in the Fallbrook area when he makes that phone call – 5.48 pm. After that 5.48 pm contact with the defendant the defendant’s cell phone goes off the grid. And that is to say it’s either turned off, it’s in airplane mode or it’s somewhere where it’s not connecting with any towers.

From 5.48 pm on February 4th to 9.32 pm his cell phone is not connecting any towers. And there are during that time period 1-2-3-4-5 calls between 6.09 and 9.04 from Catherine Jarvis, his wife at the time, to the defendant and Voicemail messages are left. Now the way we know that just looking at the records you’ll also know a lot about cell phones at the end of this trial, is, this gives the geographic location as well as other information for the cell towers that his phone was connecting with. During that time period, during those calls that he was getting from his wife, Catherine Jarvis, he’s not connecting with any tower. It’s actually more than three and a half hour period, all incoming calls appear to be forwarded to Voicemail.
 
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- 11 - PROSECUTOR'S OPENING SPEECH

9.32 PM MERRITT AT MIRA LOMA THEN PHONE OFF GRID UNTIL 7.30 AM


At 9.32 pm he calls Catherine Jarvis and his cell phone connects with a cell tower in Mira Loma which is south of Rancho Cucamonga north of Corona. After that 9.32 pm contact his phone is off the grid until 7.30 the next morning, February 5th.


7.56 PM CHEQUE RAISED


During that 5.48 to 9.32 pm is when the Mitchley video was taken, 7.47 pm.

A look into Joseph’s QuickBooks records showed – you’re going to hear more evidence about that video in particular – during that time period at 7.56 pm someone signed in from the McStay’s home computer, the one there at Joseph’s desk, signed in, added a cheque to charles merritt all lower case, deleted the cheque and signed out. The memo was for paul mitchell all lower case, and the cheque was for $4,000.


At 8.28 pm Joseph’s cell phone record shows a call to the defendant, again during that time period when the defendant’s cell phone is off. The defendant’s cell phone does not register a call during that time period. Could be explained by quickly trying to call someone and hanging up before the connection is made from the closest tower to you to the closest tower to them, before that connection is made you’re calling then hanging up.

FEBRUARY 5TH – BACKDATED CHEQUES


On February 5th four cheques are created, not from the McStay’s home computer, computers – any of them, cheque 4094, 95, 96 and 97 are all created, two of them are to Metro Sheet Metal - their company in Azusa - for relatively small amounts, two of them are to charles merritt all lower case, now what’s interesting about these four cheques on 5th they were backdated to 4th – the last day the family was known to be alive. The sequence of cheques is before the cheques that were found in Joseph’s office out in the open on a chair. That cheque was printed [refers to court screen] 4093 it’s kind of hard to read I apologise the number was deleted it was edited it was to be printed it was printed 4095 it was backdated to February 4th 2010, one cheque 4097 was $6,506 and one cheque 4098 [??] for $2,350 that cheque was deposited. The $6,500 one that was written on that date was not deposited or cashed. They were all created backdated and deleted.

On that date February 5th – this is the day after the last known contact with the family, it’s a Friday – from 3.54 pm to 9.17 pm the defendant’s cell phone again is not connecting to any towers. There’s no activity on his cell phone and then after that 9.18 pm I believe there’s no more contact […court video skips] as well. So that’s Friday the 5th.
 
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- 12 - PROSECUTOR'S OPENING SPEECH

FEBRUARY 8TH

I’m going to jump forward to the 8th and then we’re going to come back and it’ll make sense when I do it, I promise. On February 8th that’s the day the Trooper was towed from the lot in San Ysidro, from 7.26 to 1.31 am [pm?] – at 7.26 the defendant has a cell phone connection to a tower in Rancho – after that his cell phone is not receiving or sending any messages so it’s either turned off in airplane mode or not connecting with any towers, from 7.26 am to 1.31 pm.

That vehicle, again that’s on the date the vehicle was towed at 11 o’clock that night, backing up to the interview with San Diego, he was asked have you ever driven the vehicle that Isuzu Trooper [plays recording]

Have you ever driven the [?]​

…No.​

Have you ever been in it?​

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…..Yeah! When the la, the last time I was in it we went to Camp [inaudible] went to, we played paintball ​

How long ago?​

[long silence] month and a half maybe err, ​

[inaudible]​

Front passenger​

But never driven?​

Never driven ​


DNA IN ISUZU TROOPER


San Diego while they were with the defendant there took what’s called a buccal swab, it’s a swab of the inside of his cheek for his DNA. When the bodies were located San Bernardino processed the swab for DNA, just kind of thumbnail sketch what DNA does, everyone has a profile they look at various areas on the DNA strand and everybody has a value at those areas. Across the population there’s certain statistics for, for instance I might be a 1:2 at this location but half the population’s a 1:2 at that location but every other location also has its own statistical value. So they obtain a known sample, that being Charles Merritt and they obtain a profile from the steering wheel of the Isuzu Trooper, the swabs taken by San Diego county by Dennis Williams. They compare the values of the locations of the known sample with the values of the locations on the steering wheel, from the swabs from the steering wheel, they were able to obtain a mixture of individuals on the steering wheel.

The mixture when you look at the quantity or the amount of DNA was primarily Joseph, because he was the driver, it matched him, there was a trace small contributor of Summer, and a minor contributor of the defendant. The possibility of finding that profile at random in the population is 1 in 850 million.

They didn’t get any results from the driver’s side panel, they got some results, the numbers are not 1 in 850 million but there is some suggestion on the gearshift and on the radio controls air conditioning controls on the panel in the Trooper.
 
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- 13 - PROSECUTOR'S OPENING SPEECH

MERRITT’S CELL PHONE CALLS QUICKBOOKS & ANOTHER BACKDATED CHEQUE

On February 8th again that’s the day the Trooper was found, at 1.31 when the defendant’s cell phone comes back on the grid, so to speak, it comes on at 1.31 he’s near the 91 freeway in the Corona area and then at 1.41 there’s a cell phone tower contacted on the northbound 15, in the Corona Norco area, 1.51 he’s even further north and 1.54 to 6.31 he’s accessing or sending a signal to towers near his residence.

On that date February 8th, Monday, guess what, QuickBooks is accessed.

At 2.20 pm a cheque is added to charles merritt all lower case, that cheque’s deleted, there is a 107 minute phone call to QuickBooks on Monday 8th. The caller identified himself as Joseph McStay the number he was calling from was the defendant’s phone number. There was some indication of cancelling a subscription, getting a new version, he tells San Diego investigators Joseph gave me his credit card number even though we’re two different companies and I don’t even do all his fountains, gave me his credit card number to get a new version of QuickBooks.

A cheque to charles merritt was created it was backdated to February 4th printed and deleted and was deposited on February 9th 2010. The two cheques to Metro Sheet Metal that were written on 5th and backdated to 4th those were held onto until March by the bookkeeper because they didn’t look right, it wasn’t like what she’d gotten from Joseph in the past.

FEBRUARY 9TH MERRITTS CELL PHONE CALLS QUICKBOOKS AGAIN

On February 9th again someone calls QuickBooks claiming to be Joseph McStay but calling from the defendant’s cell phone number. Customer service representative who took the call said that the customer was adamant that they needed all of the information in the QuickBooks account deleted. In fact he knows they were adamant because in his customer service notes he wrote in all caps NEEDS all of the information deleted. So he told Mr McStay, calling from the defendant’s cell phone, I need to send you an email as the administrator with what you need to do, steps you need to take to do that. He didn’t hear anything. He sent another email he still didn’t hear anything. And he closed [video skips].
 
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- 14 - PROSECUTOR'S OPENING SPEECH


MERRITT CONTACTS SUSAN BLAKE, GOES TO FALLBROOK & HITS THE CASINOS

February 9th the defendant goes to Susan Blake’s house, it’s a Tuesday, says ‘Hey I can’t get a hold of your son Jo do you know anything I don’t know, I’m gonna go down there’ and his cell phone goes down there and accesses towers in the Fallbrook area for about an hour and a half. And then after that it accesses towers near the Pala Casino for about eight hours.

Remember how I said earlier on about the playing the victim and all of that, that came to light kind of in light of his interview with San Diego county. [video skips] “my rep won’t get paid, that’s not gonna be fun”. [video skips]

Takes out $500 at the San Manuel Casino in Highland.

The next day he takes out $300 at the San Manuel Casino in Highland.

Two weeks later takes out $500 at the Commerce Casino.

Same day takes out another $500 from near the Commerce Casino.

After that another $500 from the San Manuel Casino – but he’s talking about this impact that it’s going to have on his life and, you know, his wife she’s worried too because Joseph was the primary source of IDesign [?]’s income. [inaudible recording].


FEBRUARY 6TH MERRITT'S CELL PHONE IN MOUNTAINS NEAR GRAVESITES


Promised we’ll go back to February 6th. February 6th was a Saturday, [video skips] 1.30 pm the defendant [video skips] contacting towers, remember earlier on I said over to the right here is the geographical location of those towers, those were again analysed by Kevin Boles of the FBI and he can look at the location and the azimuth - that is the direction cell towers go certain sectors, there’s a sector for a certain number of degrees, that’s what the cell phone contacts off of - between 10.46 am and 1.30 pm the defendant’s cell phone is contacting towers in the [video skips] .

In particular 11.30 am to 11.52 and 1.30 pm he’s on a tower he’s contacting a tower which is on top of this mountain here on the right of this photograph. Here’s a photograph of that cell tower from the grave site. [video skips] - two days after the family was murdered.

CONCLUDES

Ladies and Gentlemen we talked a little bit about in jury selection and Mr Imes talked to you about unanswered questions. There will be some in this case. We can’t tell you whether or not someone helped the defendant either during the commission of the crime or after. Certainly it would suggest two grown people need to be moved, we can’t answer all of the questions, but we can answer the who, [video skips] he was ripping off his ‘best friend’ and got caught and we can tell you that the evidence is going to show in this case that the only person in this case that’s associated with the McStays that had a connection to the High Desert is the defendant. Everyone else is San Diego county, Riverside county, Orange county. The only connection to the High Desert in this case is that man right there. We can tell you the how, we can tell you the why, and we can tell you the who, and at the end of this case we’re going to give a closing argument and we’re going to ask you to find him guilty and to hold him accountable. Thank you.
 
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missarmchair said:
I agree, it did seem like Patrick was closer to Joey. From what I've read over the years, this caused jealousy in Mike at a very young age, the fact that his bio father loved his half brother just as much as he loved him. I would imagine growing up and not being able to have his own biological children just added to the jealousy. I realize some people may get offended by me saying that, but I don't care. Yes I know Chase is the one on trial, but I also know Mike has had jealousy + anger issues towards Joey since childhood. However, he has always played it off like he and Joey were as close as two brothers could possibly be.
Click to expand...
That's good to know and definitely something worth considering.
 
@mrjitty because Tortoise just posted the OS transcript... you can see in post #55, what the pro's said at the end of their OS. BBM

CONCLUDES

Ladies and Gentlemen we talked a little bit about in jury selection and Mr Imes talked to you about unanswered questions. There will be some in this case. We can’t tell you whether or not someone helped the defendant either during the commission of the crime or after. Certainly it would suggest two grown people need to be moved, we can’t answer all of the questions, but we can answer the who, [video skips] he was ripping off his ‘best friend’ and got caught and we can tell you that the evidence is going to show in this case that the only person in this case that’s associated with the McStays that had a connection to the High Desert is the defendant. Everyone else is San Diego county, Riverside county, Orange county. The only connection to the High Desert in this case is that man right there. We can tell you the how, we can tell you the why, and we can tell you the who, and at the end of this case we’re going to give a closing argument and we’re going to ask you to find him guilty and to hold him accountable. Thank you.
Click to expand...
 
Texas Red said:
No, I hadn’t read the prelim so I was unaware of both accounts being online. I drew this conclusion by listening to the live testimony of the detective, along with knowing one the accounts had originated from 2004, I then compared that to my own experience of upgrading QB’s in 2005 in which I migrated to an online account.

What prompted me to do this was speculation into why JM’s remains were wrapped with restraints and had signs of possible torture, and concluded it may have been done in order to force JM into revealing the new password to the QB account. The reason for the new password, according to speculation by others on this forum, would have been to secure the accounts after JM became aware of CM’s fraudulent access to the account.
Click to expand...

I have considered Joey being 'tied' up to get the password as well. My only issue with that is that we have no indication that Joey actually changed the pswd, and because we know that CM already had the password, he would have no need to 'get' it. I believe that Quickbooks would have had a log of the password change considering they kept logs of when it was accessed, what was done, etc.

If CM was able to access the account on the 2nd, Joey became aware of it the morning of or before the meeting with Chase on the 4th... why wouldn't Joey change his password immediately? That is just not logical to me at all. We know he had access to it on his phone, he had access to it at home... change the password before it happens again! JMO
 
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