VERDICT WATCH Closing Arguments- Chase Merritt Charged W/Murder of Joseph, Summer, Gianni and Joe Jr McStay

Status
Not open for further replies.
So, I'm kinda done with arguing the testimony during the trial... I think everyone has their opinion at this point and no one is going to change anyone's mind IMO

That being said.... do you think the State has made any assumptions in this case?
Stringing together circumstantial evidence might be considered assumptions.
The length of time from the disappearance of the family to when they were found benefits the killer.
Add to that the length of time from the discovery of the bodies to the start of trial and that certainly benefits the defendant . Memories get hazy , witnesses are lost . Then you add the stop & go in the actual trial & the defendant benefits , again , as the prosecution’s case was laid out months ago.
I just hope justice is done .
 
Did some more watching of closing arguments by both DT and PT today. I know there are posters here who think the state hasn't laid out a convincing case, but how to get past all the lies and bizarre assumptions on the part of the DT? There are so many. And: Chase's story has changed so many, many times, and it all fits with where the case was going at the time. At first he claimed that the custom account was created to hide money from Summer, then later when it becomes necessary to blame DK, the account is created to hide it from him.

Then, there's the ever changing story and timing of his first visit to the McStay home after the 4th. Then, the changing of the dog-feeding story. It goes on and on and on. You can move through his story changes and track the case perfectly.

I find it very difficult to believe that anyone believes Chase isn't guilty, whether or not the state has laid out a case BARD. Just hope he has a date, earlier rather than later, with Old Sparky.

And, am so very inclined to believe that this isn't his first venture into murder.
Honestly, Judge Smith did the best closing argument when he was giving his reason for denying a directed verdict after the Prosecution rested .
 
Stringing together circumstantial evidence might be considered assumptions.
The length of time from the disappearance of the family to when they were found benefits the killer.
Add to that the length of time from the discovery of the bodies to the start of trial and that certainly benefits the defendant . Memories get hazy , witnesses are lost . Then you add the stop & go in the actual trial & the defendant benefits , again , as the prosecution’s case was laid out months ago.
I just hope justice is done .

Absolutely. I agree. The memories are hazy part... it seems that doesn't benefit the defendant and instead it's used against him and anyone 'on his side'. Only their memories get scrutinized, no one is "allowed" to question the memory of others in this case IMO In some of these cases that are drawn out or even where there are multiple statements from someone, going back to the first statements are IMO the best and not clouded by other statements, other information/opinions.
 
There you have it.

@Force Ten you have been a strong advocate for the McStay Family. The end is near. It’s been a very long 9 years.

There are others here who have been here from the beginning. I’m one of those. Don’t comment much but the McStay Family has always been close to my heart. I want to say THANK YOU - even though I did not mention your names - for supporting the McStay Family. You folks know who you are.
Ditto
 
Say the jury start deliberating today and still are tomorrow, what happens over the weekend will they be deliberating or will they continue Monday?
If a verdict is reached and court is ‘dark’ do we have to wait to hear the verdict or will everyone be rushed back to the courtroom straight away?
 
So, I'm kinda done with arguing the testimony during the trial... I think everyone has their opinion at this point and no one is going to change anyone's mind IMO

That being said.... do you think the State has made any assumptions in this case?

Missy, you obviously think the state has made assumptions, and since you don't want to continue to argue the testimony, I'm not sure what to respond here. However, I'll just generalize and say that I think that the state has taken certain bits of information/evidence, and made logical inferences, such as the ping info and the truck DNA. You can slice and dice these and say that maybe Chase shook hands with Joey when they last met and that's why his DNA is there. Etc. To my mind, the bulk of the evidence the state has presented is just more persuasive.

So much of the things the DT has asserted, while certainly not impossible, do seem like wild and convenient assumptions to me. The explanation of the Quickbooks and phone calls is an example. It's certainly possible that Joey and Chase were creating an "alternative accounting system", but the argument seems to me to cut out of whole cloth. The PT assertions here seem vastly more plausible: Chase realized that the gravy train was coming to an end, and started to grab what he could from Joey. Joey found out, confronted him, and paid the price.

On to the other point, though: Do you think it odd that Chase's changes in story all seem to align with what would be necessary at each point in the investigation?

Like you said, at this point we're not likely to change each others' minds!
 
Last edited:
Absolutely. I agree. The memories are hazy part... it seems that doesn't benefit the defendant and instead it's used against him and anyone 'on his side'. Only their memories get scrutinized, no one is "allowed" to question the memory of others in this case IMO In some of these cases that are drawn out or even where there are multiple statements from someone, going back to the first statements are IMO the best and not clouded by other statements, other information/opinions.
Maybe watching the prosecutions case over again will refresh your memory ( no pun intended).
 
Ok, I'm a bit confused... MR said they never said they were killed in the house, went on to say that it was ridiculous that someone kidnapped them (like the defense said) and then went on to say that Merritt kidnapped them? I may have heard it wrong because I was doing something else... can anyone clarify? I will have to listen to this again later :confused:
 
When you think that those little boys would be 13 and 12 now it really puts into perspective just how long it’s taken to get here.
I can hardly believe my eyes when I see *verdict watch* at the top of this thread
 
Say the jury start deliberating today and still are tomorrow, what happens over the weekend will they be deliberating or will they continue Monday?
If a verdict is reached and court is ‘dark’ do we have to wait to hear the verdict or will everyone be rushed back to the courtroom straight away?

I don't believe they will be deliberating tomorrow, a juror had a prior commitment... so I believe they will start back up on Monday. I am sure we will hear more when they start deliberating.
 
Say the jury start deliberating today and still are tomorrow, what happens over the weekend will they be deliberating or will they continue Monday?
If a verdict is reached and court is ‘dark’ do we have to wait to hear the verdict or will everyone be rushed back to the courtroom straight away?
If jury begins deliberating today and court is dark Friday, jury will not return to deliberate on Friday. Deliberations resume again next open court day.
 
Thanks to you and others who have given their opinion on where we think the jury will go with this case. It helps me and others who have not had a chance to follow the trial as closely as others.

From what I have gathered from the little I have managed to watch and read about I tend to agree that he most likely is guilty.

I mainly think this because when I try to ask myself who could have done such a horrendous thing to the wife and kids too then it limits the type of people who would have done such a thing.

A random burglar/murderer would have left everyone dead at the house if it was a random person. The way the wife and kids were taken out to the desert along with the father indicates this was some inside job from the fountain business by someone that had an interest in taking out the father and then took out all the witnesses related to the father.

Throw in a gambling problem and the motive rises to the top for me. A jealous business partner that had gambling issues and wanted money to come easy rather than working for it like everyone else.

Yeah IMO I think they have the right guy in their sights. Hope the jury gets it right.

BBM: ...taken out to the (around Victorville) desert , which just so happens to be Chase Merritt's stomping grounds; which just happens to be close in proximity to his ping information; which just happens to be where he mentioned to someone that's where he'd bury a body, should he have one to bury; which just happens to be where he spends quite a bit of time digging holes; which just happens to be where he creeped out the fellow miner, who hastily fled and called police.....
 
BBM: ...taken out to the (around Victorville) desert , which just so happens to be Chase Merritt's stomping grounds; which just happens to be close in proximity to his ping information; which just happens to be where he mentioned to someone that's where he'd bury a body, should he have one to bury; which just happens to be where he spends quite a bit of time digging holes; which just happens to be where he creeped out the fellow miner, who hastily fled and called police.....

Lots of CE pointed out here @fridaybaker
 
Missy, you obviously think the state has made assumptions, and since you don't want to continue to argue the testimony, I'm not sure what to respond here. However, I'll just generalize and say that I think that the state has taken certain bits of information/evidence, and made logical inferences, such as the ping info and the truck DNA. You can slice and dice these any say that maybe Chase shook hands with Joey when they last met and that's why his DNA is there. Etc. To my mind, the bulk of the evidence the state has presented is just more persuasive.

So much of the things the DT has asserted, while certainly not impossible, do seem like wild and convenient assumptions to me. The explanation of the Quickbooks and phone calls is an example. It's certainly possible that Joey and Chase were creating an "alternative accounting system", but the argument seems to me to cut out of whole cloth. The PT assertions here seem vastly more plausible: Chase realized that the gravy train was coming to an end, and started to grab what he could from Joey. Joey found out, confronted him, and paid the price.

On to the other point, though: Do you think it odd that Chase's changes in story all seem to align with what would be necessary at each point in the investigation?

Like you said, at this point we're not likely to change each others' minds!

I do think the State has made assumptions, just like the Defense did. And by saying I don't want to debate, I mean by going into the meat of the testimony, the different interpretations, etc. I just think it's hypocritical to say the defense had made assumptions when the State has too, but I guess if we qualify it by saying "logical assumptions", it makes it ok lol

I have found this case to be interesting to follow to say the least.... considering I started the trial off thinking no way no how did he not do this....

I don't think it's odd at all that Chase changed his story at all.... just like I don't think it's odd that other's did too.... things get muddied when we have more information, memories fade, memories morph, people tell us things, things that seemed unimportant before become important, that's why I think it's always best to go back to the first interviews, but that's JMO.
 
Absolutely. I agree. The memories are hazy part... it seems that doesn't benefit the defendant and instead it's used against him and anyone 'on his side'. Only their memories get scrutinized, no one is "allowed" to question the memory of others in this case IMO In some of these cases that are drawn out or even where there are multiple statements from someone, going back to the first statements are IMO the best and not clouded by other statements, other information/opinions.

I know we've been over this before, but can you give an example or two where you think this is critical to the case? Where state witnesses, etc. have done this? So much of this kind of thing was hashed out amidst a ton of other information/topics, maybe at this point it in the case it would be more clear to consider a couple that you think are critical.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
137
Guests online
848
Total visitors
985

Forum statistics

Threads
589,931
Messages
17,927,818
Members
228,004
Latest member
CarpSleuth
Back
Top