Jury to present trial verdict in sledgehammer killings of California family

[June 10, 2019]  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Southern California jury was due to present its verdict on Monday in the murder trial of an ex-convict charged with the 2010 sledghammer killings of a family of four whose remains were found more than two years later buried in the desert.

The San Bernardino County Superior Court jury reached its verdict on Friday, capping seven days of deliberations on the fate of Charles "Chase" Merritt, who authorities described as a former business associate of the slain father, Joseph McStay.

McStay, 40, his 43-year-old wife, Summer, and their two sons - 4-year-old Gianni and 3-year-old Joseph Jr - were reported missing in February 2010 from their home in the San Diego community of Fallbrook.

Their skeletal remains were unearthed in 2013 from shallow graves near Victorville, northeast of Los Angeles. All four had been killed inside their home on the day they were last heard from, and died of blunt-force trauma.
 

Detectives testified that a sledgehammer believed to be the murder weapon was recovered from the burial site.

According to media accounts of the trial, prosecutors told the jury the slayings grew out of a financial dispute between Joseph McStay, owned a business making decorative fountains, and Merritt, a welder who worked for McStay fabricating the custom pieces.

The defense countered that prosecutors failed to prove their case that Merritt killed the family or buried their bodies.

Merritt pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder. Prosecutors have said they would seek the death penalty should he be convicted.

If jurors find Merritt guilty, the trial would enter a sentencing phase in which jurors will decide whether to recommend the defendant be executed or receive a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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