Man convicted of killing family found in desert
SAN BERNARDINO — A Southern California man was convicted Monday of killing a family of four and burying their bodies in the desert, a case that puzzled investigators for years after the family suddenly vanished from their home in 2010.
After a trial that spanned more than four months and depended largely on circumstantial evidence, jurors in San Bernardino found Charles “Chase” Merritt, 62, guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in the bludgeoning deaths of his business associate Joseph McStay, McStay’s wife, Summer, and the couple’s 3- and 4-year-old sons.
The jury also found the special circumstance of multiple murders. Prosecutors have said they would seek the death penalty if Merritt was convicted. The penalty phase of the trial was set to begin Tuesday.
After the McStay family disappeared, authorities found bowls of uneaten popcorn at their San Diego County home, which had no signs of forced entry, and their car parked at a strip mall near the Mexican border. For years, officials couldn’t determine what happened to them.
In 2013, their bodies were found in shallow graves in the desert after an off-road motorcyclist discovered skeletal remains in the area. Authorities also unearthed a rusty sledgehammer that they said was used to kill the family.
Merritt, who worked with McStay in his water features business, was arrested in 2014. Prosecutors argued he killed McStay out of greed at a time when he owed McStay money and was being cut out of the business.
Authorities said they traced Merritt’s cell phone to the area of the graves in the days after the family disappeared and to a call seeking to close McStay’s online bookkeeping account.
Merritt referred to McStay in the past tense in an interview with investigators after the family vanished, and while the evidence linking him to the killings is largely circumstantial, it is “overwhelmingly convincing,” said prosecutor Britt Imes.
Merritt’s attorneys said the two men were best friends and investigators overlooked another possible suspect in the killings. They said the evidence doesn’t add up, noting there were no signs of an attack inside the family’s home.
“They tried his character and not the facts of this case,” defense attorney James McGee told jurors.