VERDICT WATCH Closing Arguments- Chase Merritt Charged W/Murder of Joseph, Summer, Gianni and Joe Jr McStay

[la2cabo]

In addition to Merritt's bank records I wish we could've seen his past tax returns. I bet they would've told quite a story.

 

[gitana1]

How much of the trial have you watched?

Now you are doing the same fallacy of diversion thing you are accusing others of doing.

Do you really believe people here would be insane enough to actually spent the time to create VPN's just so they could vote in a small poll meant for entertainment purposes?

 

[Force Ten]

The Saudi job, if I remember correctly.

Well, the SA job was already produced and delivered, Chase was supposed to go and install it. Paul Mitchell was the one that was not started. They had did one for a PM salon but it was a about a year prior I think. They were supposed to do a whole string of them but those weren't started. I believe it was PM that Imes pointed out in closing.

 

[gitana1]

Yes I know. But there seemed to be some subtle implication otherwise, so I wanted to make it clear, just in case.

I got that sense. And I wanted to do the same thing!

 

[UndiscoveredTruth]

Good afternoon everyone! Here are the Tweets from Richard K. De Atley!

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 7h7 hours ago
Good morning. The prosecution’s final argument rebuttal continues this morning in San Bernardino County Superior Court for the Charles "Chase" Merritt capital murder trial. He’s charged in the 2010 slaying of the four-member McStay family.#mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 7h7 hours ago
Deputy District Attorney Melissa Rodriguez will resume addressing the jury. She spoke for about 14 minutes late Wednesday afternoon, before court ended for the day. After she finishes, the case goes to the jury . #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 7h7 hours ago
Not going to guess at the timeline for any of this. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 7h7 hours ago
Merritt, 62, has pleaded not guilty to the charges that he killed former business associate Joseph McStay, 40, his wife, Summer, 43, and their two children, Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr., 3, in their San Diego County home on Feb. 4, 2010. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 7h7 hours ago
Their remains were found more than three years later in two shallow graves in the Mojave Desert, near Victorville. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 7h7 hours ago
Testimony began Jan. 7, and with delays that included one of the defense attorneys falling ill, the trial before San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Michael A. Smith that was forecast to end in April has lasted into late May. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 6h6 hours ago
Jurors are seated. Judge Smith is on the bench, and Deputy District Attorney Melissa Rodriguez is resuming her rebuttal. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 6h6 hours ago
Tells jurors she will go over assumptions by defense . One of them, that Joseph McStay and Merritt had a great business relationship. "We don't know what the status of their business relationship on Feb. 4" 2010 when the McStay family disappeared. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 6h6 hours ago
Goes over the Feb. 1 email from McStay to Merritt that prosecution says shows McStay says Merritt owes McStay nearly $43,000. Defense witness said they were even. Rodriguez says there is nothing in the email to suggest that.

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 6h6 hours ago
Over defense objections, Rodriguez asks jury why Joseph McStay would entrust business check writing to Merritt, a man who McStay had fronted about $20,000 to get out of a gambling debt. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 6h6 hours ago
Rodriguez: 8:28 p.m. Feb. 4 2010 alibi phone call from McStay that Merritt partner Cathy Jarvis said was received but was not answered by Merritt at home in Rancho Cucamonga, putting him in Inland area and not in Fallbrook, never happened #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 6h6 hours ago
That call is not on Merritt's phone records, Rodriguez says, and the she goes over the recordings jurors heard of what prosecutors said was Merritt coaching Jarvis on how to testify about the call during jail meetings before her testimony. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 6h6 hours ago
Says backdating of McStay business checks by Merritt to Feb. 4 was because Merritt knew that was the last day McStay was alive. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 6h6 hours ago
"What's reasonable? The story keeps changing from the defense," Rodriquez says. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 6h6 hours ago
Tells jurors no one in prosecution team said all four McStay members were murdered in the house. "We know somehow the defendant got control of the family and got them out of the house," she said. #mcstay #chasemerritt"

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 6h6 hours ago
"No evidence" about defense claim that 3 people entered McStay home, she says. Notes on defense attorney said abduction Feb. 4, another the morning of Feb. 5. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 6h6 hours ago
Investigators believed early in case Summer McStay had been raped, and the defense attorneys said it occurred at the desert burial site. Rodriguez reminds jurors that subsequent pathology investigation could not conclude a rape occurred. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 6h6 hours ago
The handshake DNA transfer that the defense said left some Merritt DNA in the family Isuzu Trooper found in San Ysidro: "You have zero evidence" that McStay shook Merritt's hand, Rodriguez tells jurors. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 6h6 hours ago
Tells jurors that any DNA recovered from the grave after nearly four years of weather and animal activity cannot be reliable. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 6h6 hours ago
Rodriguez goes over cell phone searches made by Merritt after detectives interviewed him Oct. 22 2014 -- how to get to Alaska without going through Canada, how to change identity, what is needed for a search warrant. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 6h6 hours ago
Says prosecution did not say the McStay bodies were buried on Feb. 6; just that cell phone tracking evidence showed Merritt was in the Victorville area on that day. It could have been to check on grave site after rains that day, Rodriguez said. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 6h6 hours ago
Dan Kavanaugh, who defense says is an overlooked suspect in the slayings. Rodriguez says there is no evidence that Kavanaugh, as defense claims, left a Hawaii vacay, returned to mainland, killed McStays, then retuned to Hawaii, undetected. "A red herring" #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 6h6 hours ago
Says defense witnesses, not prosecution, have the confirmation bias that defense attorneys claim infects prosecution. Over defense objections goes over that Merritt's cell phone was off on key times for the case in Feb. 2010 #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 5h5 hours ago
Simplest explanation -- Merritt wanted to delete the McStay QuickBooks custom water project account was because he wanted to get rid of evidence of forged checks, Rodriguez said.

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 5h5 hours ago
Merritt had ample time to cover his tracks because days had gone by before anyone discovered McStays were missing. Merritt never called 911, even anonymously, about the missing family, Rodriquez says. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 5h5 hours ago
Feb. 9, 2010, Merritt after visiting McStay home in Fallbrook and sees no one home, cell phone tower evidence says he then spent six hours at the Pechanga casino. This is how he reacted to finding his best friend and that man's family gone, Rodriguez says. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 5h5 hours ago
"You don't get to murder an entire family and get away with it,"Rodriguez tells jurors. She says the two boys were killed because they could recognize the killer. She asks for guilty verdicts, and concludes. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 5h5 hours ago
Now some short jury instructions from Judge Smith. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 5h5 hours ago
Now recess. Smith has not sent jurors to deliberate. One juror is asked to stay behind. He has notified the judge of a work conflict starting next month. "I didn't know we were going to be here until June" he tells Smith. "Trust me, no one did," Smith says. #mcstay #chasemerritt

 

[citygirl]

I felt the reference, by both the PT and Judge Smith, to Chase being a burglar and a felon, was far more egregious. That cannot be presented to the jury until the penalty phase.

But didn't the DT introduce his past transgressions in the OS?

 

[UndiscoveredTruth]

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 5h5 hours ago
A workaround: With no estimate, of course, for the timeline -- jurors starting next week will deliberate from 1 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. to keep on the panel the juror who has the work conflict. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 5h5 hours ago
Wait. The juror now says he was wrong about the time he can get to courthouse in the afternoon. Not off until 2:30 p,m. in the afternoon. Discovers this in a phone call to employer. Apologizes. Smith will call in alternates. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 5h5 hours ago
So it appears keeping that regular juror is now impossible. We will find out after a recess that Smith has called for staff and attorneys who remained in court to deal with juror issue. Stay tuned. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 5h5 hours ago
Jurors and alternates back in court. Smith on bench. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 5h5 hours ago
Thanks the juror, who has sat through all testimony since it began on Jan. 7, and excuses him. He is replaced by an alternate. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 4h4 hours ago
The jurors are sent to the jury room to begin deliberations.

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 4h4 hours ago
It will take a bit of time for instructions and evidence material to get into their hands, likely this afternoon, Smith says. #mcstay #chasemerritt

Richard K. De Atley‏Verified account @RKDeAtley 4h4 hours ago
Jurors in San Bernardino County Superior Court have begun their deliberations in the capital murder trial of Charles Ray Merritt, charged in the 2010 slaying of the four-member McStay family.#mcstay #chasemerritt

 

[smr]

Now you are doing the same fallacy of diversion thing you are accusing others of doing.

Do you really believe people here would be insane enough to actually spent the time to create VPN's just so they could vote in a small poll meant for entertainment purposes?

For all I have seen there is nothing of entertainment nature for the "passionate" posters on this thread.

 

[gitana1]

I felt the reference, by both the PT and Judge Smith, to Chase being a burglar and a felon, was far more egregious. That cannot be presented to the jury until the penalty phase.

No. It wasn't egregious at all. The defense opened the door by bringing up his criminal record thus making it fair game.

Those are the breaks.

There's a difference between something that hurts a party but was made admissible by the actions of the party's own attorney and a violation of a direct court order not to mention something.

 

[smr]

It wasn't a mistake. It was an exaggeration.

It's a mistake on my side. I was unfamiliar with the geography of those areas.

 

[smr]

So can we get the schedule more clearly for everyone's sake?

Has the jury started deliberate this afternoon?
Will they continue tomorrow or rather Monday?
Then will it be Monday - Thursday every day morning and afternoon? No Fridays?

Thanks in advance.

 

[gitana1]

For all I have seen there is nothing of entertainment nature for the "passionate" posters on this thread.

You are still doing the same thing. Not addressing the issue and diverting to something else.

But I will bite - this poll is irrelevant in the real world. To suggest people would be as insane to create a bunch of VPN's in order to cast a fake vote on a small, internet poll, is illogical and unreasonable.

The fact is most people who have followed this case on websleuths feel CM is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. That may bother certain posters but it is not necessary to create conspiracy theories in order to resolve one's cognitive dissonance about that fact.

 

[wary]

But didn't the DT introduce his past transgressions in the OS?

You’re exactly right.

 

[Kavya01]

I am wondering how far they've gotten.... And when they'll be continuing, if they are wrapping up soon for the day. The tension for all involved must be stomach-ache-inducing

 

[katydid23]

I'm curious if any of the jurors are smokers...lol. If I was a juror I'd need frequent smoke breaks...and generally gov't buildings are all non-smoking so you would have to travel a bit off site to be in compliance.

edited to add....the craving for a cigarette unfortunately also causes a sense of urgency.

My friend quit smoking by ending up on a long jury trial. She began chewing nicotine gum and it got her through the long days, where she only got to smoke at lunch time, and eventually she ended up quitting.

 

[gitana1]

But didn't the DT introduce his past transgressions in the OS?

They sure did. Oops.

 

[fridaybaker]

Yea, I am watching her now for the first time and something that people in college need to consider if they are thinking about being courtroom laywers is to really think long and hard if they are going to be a good public speaker and if they will like that part of the job.

Public speaking and presentations are a big part of being a courtroom laywer arguing a case. And its the audience reaction to their presentation skills which is very important.
Some laywers may be great lawyers but their presentation skills may not be well received.

With that said and with this being the first time I have watched her, I am being put off by her style. She is coming across as angry and basically shouting/screaming. I am getting a negative reaction to her style. And that does affect how I think about the case because even without thinking of any evidence I am starting to feel like I dont believe some of what she is saying. And there is no basis to think that other than her style which is not being received well by me.

JMO of course.

I agree with this. Unfortunately, charisma is incredibly important in trials, and I've thought she seemed defensive and not very confident. Also, she gives off a cold vibe and can't imagine her "connecting" with the jury. Trial attorneys should be very aware of this: They go through jury selection with a fine-tooth comb, hoping the find the right background, persona, etc., yet have a non-charismatic lawyer present closing arguments.

I think one can be a fantastic attorney, but the intangibles are so important in jury trials. A bad "vibe" can seriously affect a jury's decision, just as a juror who is overly emotional, unable to sift through garbage vs. evidence, etc. can cause a bad verdict.

 

[UndiscoveredTruth]

Cathy Russon‏ @cathyrusson 4m4 minutes ago
#McStay - The jury is still deliberating. They have been deliberating for approximately 4 1/2 hours. I don't know if they broke for lunch or worked through it.

 

[missy1974]

delete @UndiscoveredTruth beat me to it

 

[HelenK]

At this rather crucial point in time, I do believe that there are those out there who, perhaps on some subconscious level, relate to the tall gambler in his blue shirt and ersatz cowboy hat. They want him to be found not guilty, even though they privately acknowledge the overwhelming evidence against him, and no one else. Would they be capable of asking themselves why they feel the way they do, and give themselves an honest answer?

People, take off your rose-colored glasses. The only thing Chase Merritt is innocent of is having a conscience. You are looking at a man who has done the devil's work.