05-19-2015, 02:04 PM
Evidence Revelations Reset for Friday, 5/22
SAN BERNARDINO — A preliminary hearing that was set to begin today for a man accused of murdering a Fallbrook family has been pushed back to Friday at the request of both sides.
San Bernardino County District Attorney’s office asked to postpone the hearing because the prosecutor is sick. Defendant Charles “Chase” Merritt -- who has been representing himself in the case -- also sought more time because he is in talks to hire an attorney. (HOTD: Good change of plans on Merritt's part; he really shouldn't attempt to defend himself.)
The long-awaited hearing will be the first chance to hear the evidence that prosecutor say links Merritt to the deaths of Joseph McStay, 40, his wife Summer, 43, and their two young boys.
Friends and relatives of both the McStay and Merritt families had driven to the San Bernardino courthouse from throughout Southern California and were in the courtroom this morning for the intended start of the preliminary hearing.
At the end of the hearing, Smith will decide if there is enough evidence to order Merritt, 58, to face trial on four counts of murder in the deaths of the McStays.
Merritt has been at least tangentially linked to the case from the start. He was the last person known to have seen Joseph McStay alive, and the first to sound the alarm that the family was missing.
But the evidence investigators say implicates him in the deaths has been under wraps — until the preliminary hearing testimony.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/may/...ing-day-1/
SAN BERNARDINO — A preliminary hearing that was set to begin today for a man accused of murdering a Fallbrook family has been pushed back to Friday at the request of both sides.
San Bernardino County District Attorney’s office asked to postpone the hearing because the prosecutor is sick. Defendant Charles “Chase” Merritt -- who has been representing himself in the case -- also sought more time because he is in talks to hire an attorney. (HOTD: Good change of plans on Merritt's part; he really shouldn't attempt to defend himself.)
The long-awaited hearing will be the first chance to hear the evidence that prosecutor say links Merritt to the deaths of Joseph McStay, 40, his wife Summer, 43, and their two young boys.
Friends and relatives of both the McStay and Merritt families had driven to the San Bernardino courthouse from throughout Southern California and were in the courtroom this morning for the intended start of the preliminary hearing.
At the end of the hearing, Smith will decide if there is enough evidence to order Merritt, 58, to face trial on four counts of murder in the deaths of the McStays.
Merritt has been at least tangentially linked to the case from the start. He was the last person known to have seen Joseph McStay alive, and the first to sound the alarm that the family was missing.
But the evidence investigators say implicates him in the deaths has been under wraps — until the preliminary hearing testimony.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/may/...ing-day-1/