Charles 'Chase' Merrit was found guilty of 4 counts of first-degree murder; jury must now decide between death and life in prison

The Southern California jury that convicted a man of murdering his business associate, the man's wife and two children with a sledgehammer will now have to decide whether he is sentenced to death or life in prison - as major questions concerning the quadruple homicide remain unanswered nearly a decade later.

Charles 'Chase' Merritt, 62, was found guilty on Monday, following a trial that spanned more than four months and hinged largely on circumstantial evidence in the February 2010 slayings of Joseph McStay, 40, Summer McStay, 43, and the couple's sons, four-year-old Gianni and three-year-old Joseph Jr.

What is still unknown, despite a large-scale investigation and a months-long murder trial, is where the victims died, and when.

Merritt, who has maintained his innocence, has not been forthcoming with that information.

Merritt's defense attorney James McGee said after the verdict, which was reached on Friday but announced in court on Monday, that his client was 'devastated, in shock, and disappointed,' reported the Los Angeles Times.

Prosecutors say Merritt killed the family with a sledgehammer at a time when he owed McStay $30,000 and was being cut out of the victim's business making and selling custom water fountains, reported KTLA5.

What still remains a mystery, however, is where and exactly when the McStay family died.

'What exactly happened in that house?' a prosecutor said during Merritt's trial last month. 'Only one person knows: the killer.'

After the McStay family disappeared from their Falbrook, California home in early February 2010, authorities found bowls of uneaten popcorn, vegetables left out to rot, and no signs of forced entry or evidence of a violent killing, such as blood stains or signs of struggle.

Their car was later found parked at a strip mall near the Mexican border.

For years, officials couldn't determine what happened to the McStays. At one point, investigators said they believed the family had gone to Mexico voluntarily, though they couldn't say why.

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.

Joseph Sr and both of his his young sons had their skulls fractured. Summer McStay suffered a broken jaw.

'It was blow, after blow, after blow to a child's skull,' the Los Angeles Times reported prosecutor Britt Imes said during closing arguments.

Merritt, who worked with McStay in his water features business, was arrested in 2014.

Authorities said they traced Merritt's cellphone to the area of the desert grave sites in the days after the family disappeared and to a call seeking to close McStay's online bookkeeping account.

Merritt also 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 was largely circumstantial, it was 'overwhelmingly convincing,' Imes said.

Prosecutors say financial records show Merritt tried to loot the business bank accounts just before and after the family disappeared and backdated checks to February 4, 2010, knowing it was the last day anyone had contact with McStay.

San Bernardino County Supervising Deputy District Attorney Sean Daugherty told jurors at the start of the trial that Merritt wrote checks for more than $21,000 on his dead partner’s online bookkeeping account.

'Greed, and greed’s child, fraud' were the motive, Daugherty argued.

McStay's mother, Susan Blake, and his brother, Michael, were present in court on Monday when the jury returned for guilty verdicts. They cried and hugged, as family members of the defendant ran out of the courtroom in tears.

Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty - despite California Governor Gavin Newsom's moratorium on capital punishment in the state in March 2019.

Jury will begin hearing testimony on Tuesday to decide Merritt's sentence.

Merritt served time in prison for burglary and receiving stolen property in the 1970s and 80, reported the Los Angeles Times.

In 2001, he pleaded no contest to burglary and grand theft, earning him a six-month stint in jail followed by probation.

Eventually, he was hired by Joseph McStay's company, Earth Inspired Products, to design decorative water fountain, but his troubles continued as he racked gambling debts and more than $20,000 in unpaid taxes, according to court documents.

Source: Mail Online, Snejana Farberov, June 11, 2019

⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Alabama executes Jeremy Williams

Tennessee and Oklahoma have put inmates to death within 30 minutes of each other, and Alabama followed suit hours later as U.S. states executed three men in one day. Tennessee and Oklahoma put inmates to death within 30 minutes of each other Thursday, and Alabama followed suit hours later as U.S. states executed three men by lethal injection in one day for the first time since 2010. The Tennessee man was executed for killing a maid at a motel in 1985, and the Oklahoma man for killing his girlfriend in 2003. In Alabama, a man was put to death Thursday evening for killing a 5-year-old girl he had paid her mother to abuse.

Tennessee executes Darrell Hines

The state has spent millions of dollars over decades to execute a seriously ill man who was already incarcerated. The state of Tennessee executed death row inmate Darrell Hines Thursday morning, according to an advocacy group. No formal announcement of the execution has been issued by state leaders yet. The execution was slated for 10 a.m. Thursday at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. [DPN update] Hines was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. CDT. His last meal was fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, coleslaw, corn, fries, biscuits, a chicken sandwich, chocolate chip cake, and sweet tea.

Alabama Set To Carry Out Execution This Week

Alabama is preparing to execute Jeremy Williams, who pled guilty to the 2021 rape and murder of five-year-old Kamarie Holland. The execution is scheduled for Thursday (August 13) at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. Williams, who is 41, requested the death penalty and waived his right to appeal, making this the first execution in Alabama this year.

Oklahoma executes Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez

Oklahoma has carried out 1 of 3 executions set for the same day in the United States in another sign of the resurgence of the death penalty in the country. Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 13, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He was put to death by lethal injection for the murder of his common-law wife in 2003 at their Oklahoma City home. He admitted to police he shot her twice during an argument. Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, did not fight for his life, stunning his attorneys in July when he told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board that he didn't want clemency. "It's time for me to pay for what I did," he said.

Tennessee set to execute Anthony Darrell Hines

Barring any last-minute interventions, the Tennessee Department of Correction will execute Anthony Darrell Hines by lethal injection at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville Thursday morning. This week, two courts had the opportunity to halt the execution: the federal court in Middle Tennessee and the U.S. Supreme Court. Gov. Bill Lee announced Tuesday he personally would not prevent the execution. “After deliberate consideration of Anthony Darrell Hines’ request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene,” he said in a written statement. The U.S. Supreme Court has not granted a stay or reprieve.

Tennessee | The doctor who helps put prisoners to death

Dr. Mark Fowler assisted in the failed execution of a Tennessee prisoner. Physicians are meant to heal patients—why is he working in the death chamber? Mark Fowler, a physician with 25 years’ experience, stepped beneath the bright lights and approached the middle-aged man lying on a gurney. Around him, people in medical gowns prepared needles and sterile tubing. It had all the appearances of a hospital setting. Fowler had been called in to help establish an IV line through which the 57-year-old man, Tony Carruthers, would be injected with pharmaceutical drugs. The team had struggled to find a vein, so Fowler was summoned to set a central line—an intravenous catheter inserted into the major vein below the collarbone.

Iran’s War on Women: Executions, Floggings, and the Politics of Fear

The Iranian regime is increasingly using death sentences, corporal punishment, and judicial persecution against women—not only to silence dissent but also to intimidate a society demanding change. The Iranian regime has long viewed women as central to the country’s struggle for freedom—and therefore as central targets of repression. The nationwide uprising of 2022 fundamentally altered the political landscape, demonstrating that Iranian women were no longer merely participants in protest movements but among their principal organizers and symbols. Since then, the authorities have steadily intensified their campaign against women, expanding the use of executions, imprisonment, corporal punishment, and judicial intimidation.

The 'Black Widow' shakes Iran: 10 death sentences for a serial killer who killed 12 men

Kolthum Akbari, an Iranian woman widely dubbed the “Black Widow,” was convicted of serial murders of elderly men she married, often temporarily. Official accounts generally center on 11 murders (plus one attempted murder), though Akbari herself gave varying figures and investigations suggested she had many more marriages. The sentencing occurred primarily in September 2025 in Mazandaran Province, with ongoing reporting and updates into 2026. The 56- to 59-year-old killer confessed to killing at least 11 elderly men after temporarily or officially marrying them; Iranian authorities have linked her to additional marriages and possible further victims.

Arizona prosecutors seek death penalty a second time for 2 inmates

County Attorney Brad Miller said Aug. 6 that the nature of the attack and both men's past criminal records meet the strict legal bar required for execution under Arizona law. FLORENCE, Ariz. - Pinal County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against two inmates accused of violently killing a fellow prisoner behind bars, officials announced Thursday. Pinal County Attorney Brad Miller filed a Notice of Intent to Seek the Death Penalty against Pete Van Winkle and Tracy Hampton in connection with the fatal attack on Kenneth Thompson.

Iran | Executions in Tabriz, Zanjan, Qazvin

Iranian authorities executed at least three prisoners, including two Turks, identified as Amrollah Dousti, Hojjat Khayat, and Yousef Bagheri, in Tabriz and Zanjan Central Prisons. Dousti and Khayat were executed on drug-related charges, while Bagheri was executed for “premeditated murder.” According to information received by the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, Dousti, 40, from Bandar Abbas and a father of two, and Khayat, 51, from Tabriz and a father of three, were executed in Tabriz Central Prison on Sunday, August 9, 2026.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog