McStay suspect has serious heart disease
The murder case filed against a former business associate of a Joseph McStay, found dead with his wife and small children in two shallow desert graves last year, has been reassigned to San Bernardino’s central courthouse, officials said Thursday.
The move takes the criminal case against Charles “Chase” Merritt out of Victorville, a branch courthouse in the San Bernardino Superior Court system. The bodies of the McStay family — who were Fallbrook residents when they disappeared in 2010 — were found on the outskirts of Victorville in November 2013.
The announcement comes the same day Merritt’s attorney told reporters that his 57-year-old client is being treated for congestive heart failure.
On Nov. 5, nearly a year after the bodies were found, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department arrested Merritt. Two days later, San Bernardino prosecutors charged him with four counts of murder.
He has pleaded not guilty, and is being held in West Valley Detention Center without bail. The next hearing date in his case is set for Jan. 30 at the San Bernardino Justice Center.
In announcing the arrest and murder charges, San Bernardino authorities said they believe the family — Joseph, 40, his wife Summer, 43, and sons Gianni, 4, and Joey Jr., 3, were beaten to death in their Fallbrook home in early February 2010.
Their disappearance became an international search when their car was found in San Ysidro, not far from the U.S.-Mexico border. The investigation moved from a missing-persons search to a murder investigation when an off-road motorcyclist discovered the remains last year.
Merritt, a gifted welder, crafted interior water fountains for McStay’s business, Earth Inspired Products.
After a brief hearing in the case Thursday — which would have been Joseph McStay’s 45th birthday — Merritt’s attorney told the Victorville-based Daily Press that jail doctors are treating Merritt for congestive heart failure after it was diagnosed last week.
The attorney told the newspaper that Merritt had been taking medicine for some time but, “I imagine the experience has exacerbated any condition he’s had before,” Robert Ponce said. “He wants to resolve this case by trial as soon as possible.”
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