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

[Bernina]

Ok, another thing from the police interview, Day 11, Part 1 at about the 50 minute mark (too hard to transcribe). Here is the gist:
*snipped*

He never says Joey gave him permission to go into QB and write/back date checks himself. He did a lot of 'splaining of how the money part works, but fails to mention his role in QB.

SBM
Re-listening myself, thanks MM!

Did you catch:

$50,000 to Dan for the business, $2000 owed

Joey dealt with customers and did the plans Waterfall plans I assume)

CM didn't ever know of Dan NOT living in Hawaii during the time he knew JM

Joey was concerned that Dan might take the website down so that's why he bought him off.

CM says way too much, LE has him pegged and they're just letting him ramble. Describing the PODS? Seriously? That's going WAY beyond volunteering information.

A Trooper isn't a "white car" (deflection like he didn't pay much attention to it) and it took him a bit to figure out if he had ridden in the "white car" (Trooper).
He sure is full of himself.

 

[geevee]

Any chance Quickbooks was still logged on (with cheque screen open) on a separate computer? You'll get "another user is using the system" error when you attempt to save or print a transaction, unless you have multi-user license. It becomes read-only until the other user is logged off. Even if someone isn't using making key strokes, can still be showing as an active session. My boss and I used to run into this little issue all the time. He would have the CoA open and I'd want to edit a customer record and I was "locked down" until he logged off. I could only delete stuff that I had created under my own username/profile, not his. Peachtree was also notorious for this.

Thanks for all the QB info. btw, I hated Peachtree.

 

[JMarsh]

In response to how Hanke would know what each account was used for, it would be evident when he accessed those accounts what types of data was input in each. I have a feeling the defense will present these accounts when they are up at bat.

Here's the quote from the prelim Pg 101:

"The original account, the Contact 20 account that was created in 2004, had a mixture of Joseph's 21 personal finances as well as his business finances. The Custom account was strictly business, but he was not writing checks from that account."

The likelihood that the Custom account tracked only the business between Joey and Chase is indicated by the fact that there was no one else who was overseeing Joey's "custom fountain" projects from start to shipping, to installation, that we know about. And Chase brought Metro Sheet Metal in. And was basically the conduit between Metro and Joey.

 

[Longtimenoc]

The evidence that Joey gave Chase permission to access the QB account is that Chase only accessed CUSTOM. If Chase really wanted to drain Joey's account, and he was stealing passwords, etc, why not go for the full enchilada and delve into the CONTACTS account?

Chase only ever accessed the CUSTOM account, which was generated because of him, and solely for work Joey was doing with Chase. He wrote checks that would be discovered immediately once cashed, so there was no way to hide this activity. Following every incident of check writing on the CUSTOM account, Chase called Joey-even after Joey went missing. And there is no indication that Joey ever altered passwords or alerted any authority to fraud.

There is no indication that Joey was going to fire Chase and every indication that he planned on working with Chase long term.

There is an indication that a change in how they were handling basic accounting and check writing was in the works. That's it. No evidence of anything nefarious, at all.

But, you must recall that neither accounting tool was on line through a bank. Thus it was just a matter on Merritts part to print and cash . Oh the transactions will appear on Joeys bank statement, but at that point in 2010 who would compare the bank statements to the QBs? Took the cops awhile.

There is no indication that JM was going to change his accounting methods and losening the purse strings. Hardly." Nothing nefarious" is purely ridiculous fantasy. Arghh

 

[JMarsh]

But, you must recall that neither accounting tool was on line through a bank. Thus it was just a matter on Merritts part to print and cash . Oh the transactions will appear on Joeys bank statement, but at that point in 2010 who would compare the bank statements to the QBs? Took the cops awhile.

There is no indication that JM was going to change his accounting methods and losening the purse strings. Hardly." Nothing nefarious" is purely ridiculous fantasy. Arghh

Maybe. I'm waiting for all the evidence. It may be that the jury will have to infer from the totality of the evidence presented. And there is the added fact, that even if one doubts whether Chase is being fully truthful, do his QB actions amount to murder?

 

[katydid23]

Then why didn't Chase drain Joey's accounts? Why didn't he write more checks if that was his purpose? The defense has promised they are bringing in a forensic accountant, and according to the opening statement from the defense, all amounts are in keeping with what Chase was owed. Why would a person kill for money they would be paid anyway?

The purpose of accessing Joey's Contacts account, if one were intent on stealing, is that there would be much more information there, including bank balance totals. And Chase might have been able to perform withdrawls, bypassing the check writing process. If you are going to kill a family of four, wouldn't you want a little more in return? He could have stolen 100k and fled to Mexico with his family. Why didn't he.

If he had immediately drained the account, he would have been arrested on day one, before the family was even found, in my opinion. Even Chase was smart enough to know that. He actually put some effort into trying to disguise his thefts as just regular routine work transactions.

I don't think the defense's forensic account will know what was really owed or not owed. Joey supposedly lent or gave Chase a lot of money, outside of what owed him for jobs done. I am not sure the accountant would be able to tell the difference if Joey had set it up to avoid the tax issues with those 'gifts'.

I am not sure how he could have secretly withdrawn 100 k using the QBooks account. It would still need to go through the bank. And without a check, or a written transfer of funds, how would he get it into his own possession?

I don't believe the stolen checks were the sole purpose. I think it was a trigger, for sure. I think he began stealing checks, and Joey was already having issues with Chase, concerning complaints about shoddy and delinquent work.... so Joey confronted Chase, telling him he was going to use other workers, if he didn't get his act together. He may have also threatened to dock him some of his pay because of the money that Joey had to cover, for supplies that he already paid Chase for.

I think those killings were also rage based. Not just greed, although there was some of that too. Chase considered himself Joey's best friend and business partner. Joey had some very big money making projects coming up.

MSMetal did not want to continue working with Chase. And Joey had been relying upon them to do the major portion of the recent projects. Did Joey tell Chase that at lunch?

 

[dlkutac]

However, if it was 'sent to print' and waiting to do so, I don't think it is that revealing if something did or didn't finish the process and actually print.

We already know that several of those created checks were cashed. So he did plan of them being printed. If other things didnt print for some reason or other, I am not sure what that proves. JMO

If we knew the time of the spooled checks, and it was in the evening of the 4th, it would lend credence to the idea that "someone" was attempting to print that $4000.00 check to charles merritt. The one which was created in Custom on Joey's computer at 7:59 p.m. then deleted and never cashed. Never cashed because it probably did not print correctly. Here again, not direct evidence, only circumstantial. I speculate that Chase was quickly trying to print out a check but decided he didn't have time to mess with the alignment as he was fairly busy at that time.

 

[Bernina]

In response to how Hanke would know what each account was used for, it would be evident when he accessed those accounts what types of data was input in each. I have a feeling the defense will present these accounts when they are up at bat.

Here's the quote from the prelim Pg 101:

"The original account, the Contact 20 account that was created in 2004, had a mixture of Joseph's 21 personal finances as well as his business finances. The Custom account was strictly business, but he was not writing checks from that account."

The likelihood that the Custom account tracked only the business between Joey and Chase is indicated by the fact that there was no one else who was overseeing Joey's "custom fountain" projects from start to shipping, to installation, that we know about. And Chase brought Metro Sheet Metal in. And was basically the conduit between Metro and Joey.

BBM

That's quite a "likelihood" when posters have debunked most of it in the last 2 pages of posts...........

Chase, in the LE interview said Joey did the plans, Metro Metal was tired of doing Chase's job of electrical and plumbing just to get the jobs complete, Metro wanted a 2 way partnership, not a 3 way (per Sequeida). Joey also told Carmen that if Chase didn't pay them, HE would.

 

[dlkutac]

Maybe. I'm waiting for all the evidence. It may be that the jury will have to infer from the totality of the evidence presented. And there is the added fact, that even if one doubts whether Chase is being fully truthful, do his QB actions amount to murder?

I agree. It's a huge leap to go from stealing piddly sums to the brutal murder of two adults and two babies.

 

[Bernina]

I can't listen to the LE interview much more, I'm done for a bit.

 

[JMarsh]

I agree. It's a huge leap to go from stealing piddly sums to the brutal murder of two adults and two babies.

It is a huge leap.

 

[Longtimenoc]

Yes and it has also been asserted that Joey and Chase were embarking on a new method by which Chase was going to receive checks.

Asserted by whom?

 

[JMarsh]

Asserted by whom?

The Defense.

 

[katydid23]

This has nothing to do with the Vendor list.

For a very long time, and since this trial started, I can't count how many time's I have read "why did he put in charles merritt" when it already existed on the vendor's list. It did NOT exist on the CUSTOM account vendor list.

Exactly right. It did not exist on the Custom vendor list because Joey had NEVER EVER written a check to Chase from the Custom Account. I still haven't seen or heard any logical reason that Joey would begin doing so, especially considering it was the very the week he went missing.

 

[Longtimenoc]

Even if that is true, which I am no longer convinced that it is-it still doesn't add up to murder. Where is the evidence linking Chase to any act of murder?

The evidence is there. He killed his boss and his family after forging several thousand dollars in checks. Blown in the Casinos, testimony yet to come. This is obvious to the investigators and us.

 

[JMarsh]

The evidence is there. He killed his boss and his family after forging several thousand dollars in checks. Blown in the Casinos, testimony yet to come. This is obvious to the investigators and us.

And I guess we'll see if the jury is as satisfied. Months to go before we know.

 

[Edmo]

The evidence is there. He killed his boss and his family after forging several thousand dollars in checks. Blown in the Casinos, testimony yet to come. This is obvious to the investigators and us.

CM phone also pings AT the grave sites, oops.

 

[katydid23]

This could be where things were starting to go pear shaped.

The testimony from Joe Sequeida and Carmen Garcia seems to be in agreement that David Sequeida was looking for a bigger percentage since they were doing the fabricating that Chase was supposed to be doing.

How would Joey continue to pay Chase for work he wasn't doing, and MSM a bigger cut? Why would he continue into the future like that with more orders coming in?

YES, YES and YES.

With these big jobs coming up, Joey had to know that Chase could really mess things up for him if he did shoddy or delinquent work. Joey could lose a lot of money and screw up the business because to fill big orders it takes big investments up front for supplies and labor.

Joey could not afford for MSMetals to drop out because they were now doing most of the welding and assembling because Chase had messed up earlier projects.

I really believe that Joey gave Chase some unsettling news about the upcoming jobs. Chase would have reacted in a volatile way, in my opinion, if he thought Joey was 'stealing' future work from him. JMO

 

[LadyL]

does anyone think the murderer (Chase) had help restraining & murdering & burying and also had help taking the Trooper to the border?

 

[missy1974]

BBM

That's quite a "likelihood" when posters have debunked most of it in the last 2 pages of posts...........

Chase, in the LE interview said Joey did the plans, Metro Metal was tired of doing Chase's job of electrical and plumbing just to get the jobs complete, Metro wanted a 2 way partnership, not a 3 way (per Sequeida). Joey also told Carmen that if Chase didn't pay them, HE would.

Posters have opinions, and IMO that hasn't debunked anything. I need to wait to see all the evidence.

Sequida Sr. called Joey a crook, because Joey wouldn't tell him what he was selling the products for. I believe that Chase never owed MSM any money and there is no testimony that he did. There was something about an insurance claim that they were waiting on payment for, but that was from Joey(and they later sued Mikey for IIRC), both Carmen and Sequieda Jr testified that Joey paid, not Chase.

Feel free to find the testimony and post it though, maybe I missed it.