CA - Joey, Summer, Gianni, Joseph Jr McStay Murders - Feb 4th 2010 #6

[Tortoise]

On the 5th, between 12 and 12 thirty pm, Merritt printed and cashed 15k worth of checks, backdating them to the 2nd. Two of those checks went to Metro. Merritt signed these checks as Joseph.

Do you mean backdated to the 4th?

 

[citygirl]

When court finally starts again this week, I wonder how many actual hours of testimony they will even have this week.

I already knew any trial held in CA would be unnecessarily and excessively long, but honestly, I didn't ever expect it to have so many dark days of completely wasted time.

I thought, perhaps this one would be far more productive with it being such a serious mass murder case, and one involving the death penalty if convicted.

But that has not been the case. Instead it has been the slowest trial I've ever followed in CA or any other state for that matter.

When the jurors were selected they were first told their services would be needed for approximately three months, but now that timeline has double to a guesstimate of six months. The way this trial is proceeding at a snail's pace even the six months timeline seems unobtainable, and far fetched.

What's going to happen when jurors start advising the judge they cant serve any longer since the timeline given to them when first becoming a juror actually means nothing to the court?

Imo

I can't help but think they will home in on closing arguments. After a trial this long, taking notes, trying to follow all the witnesses, prosecution's presentation, then the defense's presentation? My head would be spinning 4 to 6 months in. I have a hard time retaining what I was doing a week ago. Seriously.
I know we have the fairest system in the world. All benefit of doubt is given to the accused.
Lest we forget though. This is about a young family of four. Brutally murdered. Babies! With sweet faces and chiclet teeth. It's about them. It's not about CM.

 

[MsFacetious]

This is exactly my concern. How can the jurors be prepared for double or triple the estimate they were given? Have they been told it's now at least double what they signed up for?

Are there young parents in the mix who would normally be home with kids? Do they have child care for more than 3 months?

People who aren't working while serving? My understanding is that jurors only get paid minimum wage and only for time IN COURT.

Are there jurors who were okay with 3 months of full time but will have major hardships with part time or at 6 months?

People who were only able to serve because the trial would be over by spring break/school getting out?

I mean because of the wasted time at least they aren't there all day every single day, but still. This is absolutely unconscionable that it is being allowed.

12 jurors and 6 alternates right? Let's hope that 2/3 can make it through to the end. They should have selected 24+ jurors.

When court finally starts again this week, I wonder how many actual hours of testimony they will even have this week.

I already knew any trial held in CA would be unnecessarily and excessively long, but honestly, I didn't ever expect it to have so many dark days of completely wasted time.

I thought, perhaps this one would be far more productive with it being such a serious mass murder case, and one involving the death penalty if convicted.

But that has not been the case. Instead it has been the slowest trial I've ever followed in CA or any other state for that matter.

When the jurors were selected they were first told their services would be needed for approximately three months, but now that timeline has double to a guesstimate of six months. The way this trial is proceeding at a snail's pace even the six months timeline seems unobtainable, and far fetched.

What's going to happen when jurors start advising the judge they cant serve any longer since the timeline given to them when first becoming a juror actually means nothing to the court?

Imo

It's going to be a long trial and lets hope the jurors are prepared for it. I think the prosecution is slowly building a foundation built upon Merritts inconsistencies, cell phone data, computer forensics and crime scene analysis. I imagine the defense portion will be longer

 

[Longtimenoc]

Do you mean backdated to the 4th?

Yikes your right, the 4th

 

[oceanblueeyes]

It's going to be a long trial and lets hope the jurors are prepared for it. I think the prosecution is slowly building a foundation built upon Merritts inconsistencies, cell phone data, computer forensics and crime scene analysis. I imagine the defense portion will be longer

I think so too.

I know it's advantageous for the defense to slow the trial way down.

I believe that is why so many cross examinations have been excessively, and unnecessarily so long.

The DT knows it throws the entire schedule off for the witnesses the state has prepared to be there on a certain day. The DT is hoping the jurors blames, and take their frustrations out on the prosecutors.

Just like the DT purposefully ask many many questions they already know aren't proper questions to ask, which forces the state to make legal objections each, and every time to get it on the record, which must be done in case there is a conviction thus an appeal.

There again, the DT wants the jurors to be duped into believing the reasons the state is vehemently objecting is because they have something to hide which is as far from the truth,as it gets. It's all a defense ploy.

Plus the DT is hoping the longer they are around CM the harder it will be to convict him.

I have seen defense attorneys in the media speak out about these kind of defense strategies.

So it makes me worry about what other shenanigans they are trying to pull.

It is far better for CM, and attorneys to stall this trial, and the inevitable conclusion down to a slow crawl.

Jurors are going to become very frustrated with the hurry up, and then wait.

They will not remain patient the longer this drags on. The court seems to have forgotten all of these jurors have lives of their own too, and dont want to be put on hold with no end in sight. Imo

Imo

 

[Longtimenoc]

OK, thank you.

So given the above info, IF Joey had told Chase to write himself some checks, why would he tell him to do so from an account that was set up as you describe---just for estimating projected costs etc?

Why wouldn't he tell him to create the checks from the correct account that was set up to pay Chase?

That's a good question isnt it? A most unfortunate coincidence that the checks and deaths occurred during the same time frame.

 

[JMarsh]

OK, thank you.

So given the above info, IF Joey had told Chase to write himself some checks, why would he tell him to do so from an account that was set up as you describe---just for estimating projected costs etc?

Why wouldn't he tell him to create the checks from the correct account that was set up to pay Chase?

Because Joey wouldn't have wanted Chase to have access to his personal finances. If Chase wrote the checks on the Custom account, then deleted them, that account still reflects the activity on their projects. But though Chase is writing a check that will eventually have him receiving funds from Joseph's bank account-Chase has no idea the balance in that account.

If Chase has permission to write the checks, he simply lets Joseph know he printed a check up, and the amount, then Joseph (as Joseph did with handwritten checks) manually adds that check amount to the Contacts account. And then both accounts reflect the numbers they were intended to reflect.

And this is all speculative. We have yet to know how those accounts were actually set up. What I will say, is if Joey set the accounts up the way I'm thinking is possible, I will be inclined to believe Chase is innocent. On the other hand, if this isn't how the accounts were set up, and it turns out Chase was accessing Contacts or features related to Joseph's personal finances, I'm leaning toward guilt.

It will be interesting to find out how those accounts were managed.

 

[JMarsh]

That's a good question isnt it? A most unfortunate coincidence that the checks and deaths occurred during the same time frame.

That is possible. One thought I had is that Dan is not the only person Joey wanted to secure his accounts from. If Chase is innocent, what may have been in the works is that Joey was going to go desktop only (no internet access) and that his plan was to set Chase up with Chase's own desktop Quickbooks. This way Chase could track the projects and perform some of these features, like check writing, but Joey will have his accounts on a platform that can only be accessed by way of his own computer.

And maybe Joey was footing the bill for the extra Quickbooks account. I couldn't tell from Baker what account he was speaking to Chase about-but I kind of thought it was only the Custom account. Or maybe there was some confusion?

Joey may have been training Chase to use his own Quickbooks, to further separate anyone's access to the income Joey was getting.

If Chase always had access to the Custom account this would have been a diplomatic way for Joey to have more security, and still allow Chase to perform a few money related tasks. The busier EIP got, the more this type of thing might have been a concern.

And again, the DA may present an entirely different scenario, in which case, my theory goes out the window.

 

[Tortoise]

Because Joey wouldn't have wanted Chase to have access to his personal finances. If Chase wrote the checks on the Custom account, then deleted them, that account still reflects the activity on their projects. But though Chase is writing a check that will eventually have him receiving funds from Joseph's bank account-Chase has no idea the balance in that account.

If Chase has permission to write the checks, he simply lets Joseph know he printed a check up, and the amount, then Joseph (as Joseph did with handwritten checks) manually adds that check amount to the Contacts account. And then both accounts reflect the numbers they were intended to reflect.

And this is all speculative. We have yet to know how those accounts were actually set up. What I will say, is if Joey set the accounts up the way I'm thinking is possible, I will be inclined to believe Chase is innocent. On the other hand, if this isn't how the accounts were set up, and it turns out Chase was accessing Contacts or features related to Joseph's personal finances, I'm leaning toward guilt.

It will be interesting to find out how those accounts were managed.

Do you think Joey printed and deleted the cheque at the house on the 4th?

 

[JMarsh]

I had a "custom" account that only had me and our son named on it. It was used for his University tuition and the money we gave him for books.

There is no way, imo, that he could use that custom account to 'add' another name to it and write checks to that new name.

His access was only for that small portion of my QB account. His name and mine.

But you could have given him access.

 

[JMarsh]

On the 5th, between 12 and 12 thirty pm, Merritt printed and cashed 15k worth of checks, backdating them to the 2nd. Two of those checks went to Metro. Merritt signed these checks as Joseph.

He "backdated" them to the 4th, but I get your point. The question is, did he have permission?

 

[katydid23]

That is possible. One thought I had is that Dan is not the only person Joey wanted to secure his accounts from. If Chase is innocent, what may have been in the works is that Joey was going to go desktop only (no internet access) and that his plan was to set Chase up with Chase's own desktop Quickbooks. This way Chase could track the projects and perform some of these features, like check writing, but Joey will have his accounts on a platform that can only be accessed by way of his own computer.

And maybe Joey was footing the bill for the extra Quickbooks account. I couldn't tell from Baker what account he was speaking to Chase about-but I kind of thought it was only the Custom account. Or maybe there was some confusion?

Joey may have been training Chase to use his own Quickbooks, to further separate anyone's access to the income Joey was getting.

If Chase always had access to the Custom account this would have been a diplomatic way for Joey to have more security, and still allow Chase to perform a few money related tasks. The busier EIP got, the more this type of thing might have been a concern.

And again, the DA may present an entirely different scenario, in which case, my theory goes out the window.

But if what you speculate is true, why didnt Chase say so back at the start?

 

[JMarsh]

IIRC no cheques were ever written against the custom account - only Chases fraudulent cheques.

Exactly. That's my point. Chase never accessed the Contacts account. He wrote checks on the account he likely always had access to. The question is, did he do this with Joey's permission, or without Joey's permission?

 

[JMarsh]

But if what you speculate is true, why didnt Chase say so back at the start?

He did say so. Chase has always maintained that Joey wanted him to perform the tasks he performed with Quickbooks.

 

[JMarsh]

Do you think Joey printed and deleted the cheque at the house on the 4th?

Even if Chase killed the family, I don't think Chase wrote that check.

 

[katydid23]

But you could have given him access.

True, but my point is that my son wouldn't have had to make a new entry, with his name in small letters, to write himself a check.
So why did chase have to do that, if Joey supposedly set it up so chase could write his own checks?

 

[JMarsh]

Joey wasn't around, and he knew it. But he didnt want any one else, who might be investigating Joy's disappearance, to see that checks were written AFTER Joey went missing. JMO

But you can't hide that, because the checks were cashed. There would be bank statements. The only person who could be fooled, and only for a little while, would have been Joey. If Joey is dead, no reason to hide the Quickbooks activity.

 

[katydid23]

He did say so. Chase has always maintained that Joey wanted him to perform the tasks he performed with Quickbooks.

I don't think he ever described it the way you are describing it. I don't think he ever said that Joey told him to backdate and delete checks he created.

 

[JMarsh]

True, but my point is that my son wouldn't have had to make a new entry, with his name in small letters, to write himself a check.
So why did chase have to do that, if Joey supposedly set it up so chase could write his own checks?

The only way your son could have access to your vendor list is if you gave it to him. My thought is Joey didn't give Chase access to the vendor list that was generated for Contacts. I could be wrong, though.

 

[Tortoise]

Even if Chase killed the family, I don't think Chase wrote that check.

So a/ do you think Joey did it? and b/ What makes you think Chase didn't write that cheque if he killed them?