I don't know if I had sympathy for MSM, but I definitely had a different view of the situation by the end of his testimony. Before this, it was implied that they had issues with Merritt, and only Merritt. It was implied that he 'stole' from them, and 'owed' them money. At this time, I no longer believe that (subject to change if we hear more testimony about it lol). What I understand now is that Sequieda Sr. also had an issue with Joey, Joey not telling him the selling price, Sequieda Sr. feeling like they weren't getting enough of a cut or a piece of the pie, even calling Joey a crook. On Thursday, I was left with thinking that they would have gladly worked with Joey and still made fountains, if CM wasn't in the picture, now I'm not so sure about that. JMO
I don't think this means that CM isn't guilty by any means, but if this was part of their 'motive' theory, I don't know how well it worked.
sound on now... no clue who this is on the stand
The location was not exposed to the road. You can't even see the freeway at the level of the graves site. Although it would shield his actions from a random bike rider if that's what you're implying.If you dug the graves without backing in your actions would be exposed to anyone that happened to drive by.
Why should Joey have to tell MSM his selling price?
MSM would tell Joey how much they would charge him to do what they were doing.
So I don't understand why Joey would have to tell them the selling price?
What difference would it make? Joey was paying and even double paying when he foolishly included MSM bill in what he gave Merritt who was supposed to pay MSM but didn't.
It sounds like Joey was far more ethical than CM.
What legal obligation did Joey have to disclose to MSM what he was selling them for if he paid what they quoted him?
The audio makes it sound like the witness is talking from the bathroom. They need to move her mic closer.
We also should take into account he was probably physically and mentally exhausted from what he did and was facing. Brutally murdered 4 people, cleaning the crime scene(s), disposing of the Trooper and then digging graves. You throw on top of that he most likely had little sleep in the past 36 hours.....he's already not in the right frame of mind.That was his plan, no doubt, but the earth was harder than he expected it to be. He could not take the time. Burying four murder victims is not something that one does at one's leisure. He had to beat it out of there.
At the snail pace this trial is going we could be here way into the fall! That is not only ridiculous but shameful. Imo
Once the important witnesses for the state starts heating up if the defense is already doing long crosses now on witnesses not nearly as important then we can be assured the crosses will be even much much longer. Gah!
I dont know how much more the jury can stand with even much longer crosses.
And when these jurors were selected they were given a timeline so they could make sure they could sit for that long.
Jurors do have lives beyond this. So what is going to happen when it goes much longer than they were initially
told upfront?
Or is this what the DT is hoping thinking jurors will tell the judge they can't serve any longer since it's way beyond what they were first told.
They could become sick or even have family members pass away. Anything could happen.
Imo it's a dicey gamble when trials last way longer than necessary.
At some point the jury is going to start complaining to the judge about so much wasted downtime.
Jmo
The sledgehammer in the grave looked pretty clean of any blood, and the only thing mentioned so far being found on it was white paint, I have a hard time believing he used it at the grave site to kill any of them and then cleaned it of blood so well before tossing into the grave.
I'm sure they did fingerprint and dna testing on it, that testimony should be interesting but seems to me had CM's finger prints been found on it, we'd have heard about it by now.
As to the poll a few pages back -
CM killed them all alone, although needed help to get back after dumping the truck near the border, my likeliest suspect for that would be CJ, as she already changed her statement once ('he was home when Joey called on 2/4', then when faced with the cell data - 'I must have been remembering another evening'.
Joey killed separate from Summer and the kids, probably in the afternoon at Chase's storage place, and Chase had Joey's phone as he drove to their home and killed Summer and the kids.
Moo
I'm not sure I understand what you're saying about EIP's accounting, unless you think there is doubt that he was printing cheques to pay himself money behind Joey's back. Yes it has yet to be proved, and the opening speech isn't evidence, but I don't have any doubt it will be.I understand what you are saying about the cheque #'s, but until we see the full accounting of EIP, it's hard to tell why they are missing or where those cheques should be.
If he was going through the window before the disappearance, I would have expected him to jump at the chance of going through that window with Mike to leave his DNA there. JMO
I, too, believe Joey was killed in the afternoon. Summer and the boys didn't have a chance.
This forum does not have a poll feature I guess? I'm curious if there is a consensus so far re:
1. Do you believe Merritt is guilty?
2. Do you think one person, or more than one, committed the murders?
3. Where do you think the family were killed?
AFAIK so far there has not been any substantial evidence linking him to the murders.
I'm not sure I understand what you're saying about EIP's accounting, unless you think there is doubt that he was printing cheques to pay himself money behind Joey's back. Yes it has yet to be proved, and the opening speech isn't evidence, but I don't have any doubt it will be.
I wouldn't expect him to jump at the chance to climb through the window, because he'd probably either wiped it all down by that time or he'd stolen a back door key, and he wouldn't want to run the risk of the police saying it was obvious why he volunteered to climb in because he knew his DNA and prints would be there.
This does make the most sense... my only question then is how did the toys end up in the back of the Trooper? They were toys that she found on Craig's List that afternoon.
From the timeline:
Summer:
3:52 pm - Home computer is used to search Craigslist for children's toys. (source: How the McStay case unfolded). There were toys found in the rear compartment of the SUV when found at the border.
ETA: maybe they weren't the same toys???
I don’t think there was any confirmation she went and picked up toys that afternoon?