CA - Joey, Summer, Gianni, Joseph Jr McStay Murders - Feb 4th 2010 #3

[Force Ten]

But was he on parole?

Force Ten posted his criminal record, he last charge/conviction was in 2001.

it's in this post: CA - Joey, Summer, Gianni, Joseph Jr McStay Murders - Feb 4th 2010 #3

ETA: I missed in the post where it said he did 3 months in 2009. What was that for @Force Ten?

I think it was a parole violation. JM was discussing it in another email to someone, though he didn't go on about the details.

 

[KALI]

Exactly. At that time in California 3 strikes mean a very long prison term. Excellent point. I hope the prosecutors catch this one. Very big deal imo.

I find this one of the most revealing post I've read. Thank you.

Imo it is a very important piece of information because it furthers he had motive to murder.

He would know without a doubt if Joey or even Summer reported to the authorities that Merritt was once again committing more felonies it would not go well for him.

Imo he knew if outed by either of them he would go to prison for all long time because of being a habitual felon offender who already had two felony convictions in his criminal past.

Imo

 

[Force Ten]

BBM above... I still don't know if this is true. We assume this, and from what others have posted, this is from DK, years later. I wonder if DK told Mike and Susan this back in Feb 2010, if so, why were they even trying to work with him? Why wouldn't they tell him to get lost and they would figure it out on their own?

To me, because of this it's more evident that DK never knew about Chase's supposed debt or that JM was planning to let Chase go. Chase cost EIP their biggest disaster, a $34K chargeback - the Provecho fountain - wouldn't DK tell Mike and Susan about that if he knew so much about Merritt and his colossal F-up's?

I'm pretty sure Dan will testify, I think he almost has to. If he does, it will be a tremendous loss for the prosecution. The defense will have a field day with him. He won't be able to argue his 'Taco stand' analogy to seasoned
attorneys.

 

[asyousay]

Exactly. At that time in California 3 strikes mean a very long prison term. Excellent point. I hope the prosecutors catch this one. Very big deal imo.

But that doesn’t explain letting Joey go home as how can Chase control who Joey tells?

So you can say he kills Summer because Joey told her what Chase had done but then Joey could of called his family in the the 4 hours they was apart, Joey could also of called the police or even gone to them.


I still think it’s more probable Joey was contained somehow by Chase that afternoon. If Chase was that concerned that Joey could grass him up to the cops that’s the only thing that makes sense here. Letting Joey go home would be too dangerous to Chase as he can’t control who Joey would tell what he had done.


So the point of my post is you can’t have it both ways. You can not say Chase was scared that Joey would get him sent back to Jail but in the next breath Joey swans out of lunch and is free to go about his business for another 5 hours where he can do exactly what Chase is scared of. It doesn’t add up
IMO

 

[Force Ten]

The 3 strikes law in Calif was no joke. You could do serious time if you were convicted of a 3rd felony. I haven't really heard much about it lately but for a time it was very serious. I wonder if that was on Chase's mind back in 2010. Although his 2 prior convictions may have not applied to the 3 strikes law if they happened before the law went into effect.

I remember the 3 Strikes Law theory being discussed quite a bit when he was arrested. 3 Strikes Law isn't just serious time either, you're put away for life. Today though, I don't know. California has been doing some crazy things with their prisons and jails over the years. They are pretty much emptying them out of non-violent offenders. They don't even arrest shoplifters anymore, they're issued a ticket and even that is a rare occasion.

 

[Cricket28]

I was born and raised in S. Calif but moved up north 2 years ago. While in Riverside visiting my sister I was able to attend day 9 of the trial. That's when John Sequeida finished his testimony, John Bluth (the guy who found the skull), and Sgts Avila and Hart testified. There may have been 1 or 2 others but I can't remember off the top of my head.

It was surreal. Notes: Chase's oldest daughter was there but that was the only family member there that I noticed. I couldn't really see the jury box, but had a good view of some of the alternates. One guy in the alternate box kept his eye on CM the whole time.

I was surprised at how small the courtroom is.
1 1/2 hours for lunch is way to long.

JMO

 

[missy1974]

The sample was collected in August, it would have taken a few months to complete the test results, then within a month CM is arrested. Following that timeline I would say the sample collected was a positive match for CM’s DNA.

But we have heard testimony that he was in the home. We have heard him in his interview say that he helped them move, helped build stuff in the backyard - a shed, a platform (or deck)... So how odd would it be if his DNA was in the house? He's not a stranger. jmo

 

[Texas Red]

I would agree, but from what I see, he doesn't have any charges of violence, or murder. He hasn't been charged with anything relating to the finances, fraud, theft, burglary or anything like that. It might go towards motive, but then I wonder why they didn't charge him with those crimes as well. JMO

I would imagine that the statute of limitations had expired.

 

[missy1974]

I would imagine that the statute of limitations had expired.

I was reading about that in the L&C chat as well lol They were saying that the statute of limitations does not start until it's discovered.

Just doing a quick google search, I found this ...

California's Discovery Rule

It is important to note that the statutory period for bringing a case does not begin until the offense is discovered, or should have been discovered.

California Criminal Statute of Limitations Laws - FindLaw

If the above is true, according to DuGal, he had no probable cause to get warrants for bank accounts, etc. So they (CM's financials) were never searched until after the bodies were found in 2013 by the SBCSD. If the statute of limitation is 3 years... that gave them at the very least Nov 2013, when SB took over and now had probably cause to get search warrants, until Nov 2016. Now, why didn't they file any charges related to theft, fraud, etc. IMO if it did indeed happen, they would go hand and hand with the murder.

 

[Texas Red]

The 3 strikes law in Calif was no joke. You could do serious time if you were convicted of a 3rd felony. I haven't really heard much about it lately but for a time it was very serious. I wonder if that was on Chase's mind back in 2010. Although his 2 prior convictions may have not applied to the 3 strikes law if they happened before the law went into effect.

It wouldn’t mater if the crimes CM committed occurred before the 3 strikes law went into effect. The law was challenged, with the contention it was an Ex Post Facto Violation, but the challenge failed https://www.wklaw.com/areas-three-strikes-ex-post-facto-violation.htm.

The 3 strikes law applies to residential burglaries but not commercial ones, Three Strikes Law - A General Summary. According to this article, McStay murder mystery: Who is Chase Merritt?, CM appears to have 3 prior burglary convictions, it states that one is for residential burglary, a home which just happened to be within 5 miles of the gravesites, the other is a commercial burglary which wouldn’t apply, the article doesn’t specify about the third one. The residential burglary that it does specify about occurred within 19 months of the non-specified one. It’s probably safe to conclude there’s a good chance it was also a residence, similar MO, which have a tendency to be consistent over a limited time frame. Considering the above, any felony, it would no longer need to be a special circumstance felony, would make CM eligible for the 3 strike sentencing enhancement.

 

[dlkutac]

Reading some of the posts on here make me scratch my head as so many things still don’t add up to me.


Like on the 2nd Feb Chase takes the first step in ripping off Joey and he obviously doesn’t give a crap about the consequences of this. He knows Joey will find out whether it be in hours or days.

So we can see from his record he has done time for theft and Burglary before and he obviously never learned his lesson and did it over and over. But he never used violence or aggression from what we know.

So why would he go that much further with the Mcstays?

Was he always planning to kill them from whenever he decided to make the cheuqe out on the 2nd?

Why after the lunch and the complete break down of the relationship would he let Joey leave knowing that if Joey called the cops or went to the cops he would end up back in jail?

He was planning it as of January 28th when he set up the fake passport search on the McStay's computer. Easily done considering the amount of time he spent at their house. It was alarming to hear him talk about their habits in such detail. You've probably covered this, but is it even possible to fake a search date? And if Chase couldn't figure out he was already set up as a vendor in Quickbooks, it's quite possible his statement about not being computer savvy was honest.

 

[oceanblueeyes]

Here you go this lists his criminal past

McStay murder mystery: Who is Chase Merritt?

Thank you so much asyousay. Much appreciated. Since I didnt follow the details on Merritt much this is quite helpful.

What it does show me he has a total disregard for the law. 3 charges of stolen possessions were back to back getting caught three years in a row for the same thing.

I also noticed something odd in one of his quoted statements to DM.

Paraphrasing. He tells them at first.... he has no clue who all they had asked to take a polygraph yet in the next breath he said he knows he is the only one who agreed to do it. ???

It makes me wonder if he even realized those are contradictory statements.

If he has no clue who was even asked to take one then how can he know he is the only one who agreed? Simply put, he would not know about any others.

I never trust anyone who says they passed a POLY! But if he did I've only seen that done when the suspects were psychopaths. They are very capable because their blood pressure never rises because they are remorseless individuals without a conscience.

Imo

 

[Texas Red]

I was reading about that in the L&C chat as well lol They were saying that the statute of limitations does not start until it's discovered.

Just doing a quick google search, I found this ...

California's Discovery Rule

It is important to note that the statutory period for bringing a case does not begin until the offense is discovered, or should have been discovered.

California Criminal Statute of Limitations Laws - FindLaw

If the above is true, according to DuGal, he had no probable cause to get warrants for bank accounts, etc. So they (CM's financials) were never searched until after the bodies were found in 2013 by the SBCSD. If the statute of limitation is 3 years... that gave them at the very least Nov 2013, when SB took over and now had probably cause to get search warrants, until Nov 2016. Now, why didn't they file any charges related to theft, fraud, etc. IMO if it did indeed happen, they would go hand and hand with the murder.

Interesting, it becomes a very subjective interpretation when you consider the wording "until the offense is discovered, or should have been discovered." Sometimes I think laws are written this way in order to keep lawyers fully employed.

Edited to fix typo.

 

[missy1974]

He was planning it as of January 28th when he set up the fake passport search on the McStay's computer. Easily done considering the amount of time he spent at their house. It was alarming to hear him talk about their habits in such detail. You've probably covered this, but is it even possible to fake a search date? And if Chase couldn't figure out he was already set up as a vendor in Quickbooks, it's quite possible his statement about not being computer savvy was honest.

So then I wonder why he says in his interview that Joey would never take the kids there. I think he maintained that over the years, didn't he? He said that it was NOT them on the Mexico video too. I don't understand the logic of that if he was the one that did the search on the computer. JMO

 

[missy1974]

Interesting, it becomes a very subjective interruption when you consider the wording "until the offense is discovered, or should have been discovered." Sometimes I think laws are written this way in order to keep lawyers fully employed.

lol I hear you! But to me, they didn't have any reason, or probable cause, to get his banking information until after the bodies were found. Until they had his banking there was no way to "discover" the offense. I don't even think they had pulled all of the EIP financial information before the bodies were found if I understood DuGal's testimony correctly.

 

[dlkutac]

But we have heard testimony that he was in the home. We have heard him in his interview say that he helped them move, helped build stuff in the backyard - a shed, a platform (or deck)... So how odd would it be if his DNA was in the house? He's not a stranger. jmo

Seems like the only thing that would be really damning is Chase's blood in the house. He had a cut on the 17th, although if he was hurt on the 4th, wouldn't it have been mostly healed? I don't understand why the prosecution would have withheld evidence like that in their opening statement if they have it. It's not like they can surprise the defense. They would want to get that out there up front to have it rattling around in the minds of the jurors.

 

[oceanblueeyes]

I'm not even sure CM knew the ins and outs of the three strikes rule in CA. Most dont know the details of many laws
yet they will be aware there is a three strike rule in the state of CA.

I live way over on the east coast but I was aware of it. Iirc Mark Klass had a big part in it, right?

I don't think it mattered one way or the other. Imo he didn't want to go back to prison, period, because he had been caught again committing more felonies.

I dont think he immediately decided he was going to murder them all.

He probably thought no matter how contentious the meeting may have been with Joey he thought he could still manipulate Joey into not pressing charges.

When everything failed is when he started planning their demise.

Jmo

 

[Texas Red]

lol I hear you! But to me, they didn't have any reason, or probable cause, to get his banking information until after the bodies were found. Until they had his banking there was no way to "discover" the offense. I don't even think they had pulled all of the EIP financial information before the bodies were found if I understood DuGal's testimony correctly.

Agreed, additionally, if he’s charged with these other crimes and convicted, then even if he’s acquitted of the murders he’d receive essentially a life sentence considering the 3 strikes law.

 

[mrjitty]

Interesting, it becomes a very subjective interpretation when you consider the wording "until the offense is discovered, or should have been discovered." Sometimes I think laws are written this way in order to keep lawyers fully employed.

Edited to fix typo.

In this case, the murder of the account holder is a pretty mitigating factor in terms of the offense not being swiftly discovered

 

[mrjitty]

I have been very busy at work and way behind on YouTube

Thanks to every one for all the great posts!