SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — The Latest on the killings of a family of four found buried in the California desert (all times local):

A Southern California man has been convicted of killing a family of four and burying their bodies in the desert.

Jurors on Monday found 62-year-old Charles “Chase” Merritt guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in the bludgeoning deaths of his business associate Joseph McStay, McStay’s wife, Summer, and the couple’s 3- and 4-year-old sons.

The family vanished from their San Diego County home in 2010, puzzling investigators. Three years later, their bodies were found in shallow graves in the desert.

Merritt was arrested in 2014. Prosecutors say Merritt killed McStay out of greed at a time when he owed McStay money and was being cut out of the business.



 FILE - In this Jan. 7, 2019, file photo, murder defendant Charles Ray Merritt sits in San Bernardino County Court prior to opening statements in San Bernardino, Calif. A jury verdict will be read in the case of a Southern California man charged with killing a family of four and burying their bodies in the desert. The verdict will be read Monday, June 10, 2019, in court in San Bernardino in the quadruple murder case against 62-year-old Charles “Chase” Merritt. (Will Lester/The Orange County Register via AP, Pool, File) (Associated Press)

Authorities said they traced Merritt’s cellphone to the area of the gravesites and to a call seeking to close McStay’s online bookkeeping account.

Merritt’s attorneys said authorities zeroed in on an innocent man but the evidence doesn’t add up.

A jury’s verdict will be revealed in the case of a Southern California man charged with killing a family of four and burying their bodies in the desert.

It will be read Monday in court in San Bernardino in the murder case against 62-year-old Charles “Chase” Merritt. Jurors reached a decision Friday after deliberating for about a week.

Merritt is charged in the bludgeoning deaths of his business associate Joseph McStay, McStay’s wife, Summer, and the couple’s 3- and 4-year-old sons.

The family vanished from their San Diego County home in 2010. Their bodies were found in shallow graves in the desert three years later.

Merritt was arrested in 2014. Prosecutors say he killed McStay because he was cutting him out of a water features business.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. -- Charles "Chase" Merritt was found guilty of murder in the killing of a family of four, who disappeared in 2010 and were later discovered three years later near Victorville.After a trial that spanned more than four months, Merritt was found guilty in the killing of the McStay family in 2010. The 62-year-old Merritt had pleaded not guilty to charges he murdered his business partner, Joseph McStay, his wife Summer, and the couple's four and three-year-old sons.Merritt was found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder. The jury also found the special circumstance of multiple murders. Prosecutors have said they would seek the death penalty if Merritt was convicted. The penalty phase of the trial was scheduled to begin Tuesday.The family vanished from their home in 2010.The remains of the family were discovered in two shallow graves in 2013 near Victorville. Merritt was arrested a year later.The prosecution believes Merritt murdered the family because he was being cut out of McStay's water-feature business and that he was also stealing money from the business - which McStay discovered.A verdict was reached Friday by jurors, but it was not announced publicly until Monday. </s> A Southern California man was convicted Monday of killing a family of four and burying their bodies in the desert in a case that puzzled investigators for years after the family suddenly vanished from their home in 2010. After a trial that spanned more than four months and depended largely on circumstantial evidence, jurors in San Bernardino found 62-year-old Charles “Chase” Merritt guilty in the bludgeoning deaths of his business associate Joseph McStay, McStay’s wife, Summer, and the couple’s 3- and 4-year-old sons.

Merritt closed his eyes and looked down when the court clerk said the word “guilty” the first of four times to first-degree murder. Sobs came from the packed courtroom. Someone called out, “Yes!”

Charles “Chase” Merritt, second left, stands in a San Bernardino courtroom after a jury finds him guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in the 2013 killings of the McStay family. Jennifer Cappuccio Maher/The Orange County Register via AP

Prosecutors say Merritt killed the family with a sledgehammer at a time when he owed McStay money and was being cut out of the victim’s business of making and selling custom water fountains.

The jury also found special circumstance of multiple murders, which means Merritt is eligible for the death penalty. Prosecutors have said they would seek the death penalty if Merritt was convicted, and the penalty phase of the trial was scheduled to begin Tuesday.

Prosecutors declined to comment after the verdict and families on both sides left without speaking to reporters.

After the McStay family disappeared, authorities found bowls of uneaten popcorn at their San Diego County home, which showed no signs of forced entry. Their car was later found parked at a strip mall near the Mexican border.

For years, officials couldn’t determine what happened to the McStays. At one point, investigators said they believed the family had gone to Mexico voluntarily, though they couldn’t say why.

In 2013, their bodies were found in shallow graves in the desert after an off-road motorcyclist discovered skeletal remains in the area. Authorities also unearthed a rusty sledgehammer that they said was used to kill the family.

“It was blow, after blow, after blow to a child’s skull,” the Los Angeles Times reported prosecutor Britt Imes said during closing arguments.

Merritt, who worked with McStay in his water features business, was arrested in 2014. Merritt had been working on a book about the McStay family murders when he was taken into custody, CBS News reported at the time.

In the book, titled “Afraid of the Light,” Merrick claimed Joseph McStay had been concerned his wife may have been poisoning him. He was looking to release it later this year. Patrick McStay, Joseph McStay’s father, told CBS News in 2014 that Merritt had talked to him about the book in a phone conversation.

“He wanted me to read what he was writing. He proceeded to start reading it to me. He said, ‘Why don’t we collaborate together and write a book?'” Patrick McStay told CBS News.

Summer McStay, left, Joseph McStay, right, and their two children, Gianni and Joseph Jr. Family photo

Patrick McStay said it immediately made him suspicious of Merritt, but he “played along” in hopes of finding out what happened to his son, his daughter-in-law and his two grandchildren.

Authorities said they traced Merritt’s cellphone to the area of the desert gravesites in the days after the family disappeared and to a call seeking to close McStay’s online bookkeeping account.

Merritt referred to McStay in the past tense in an interview with investigators after the family vanished. And, while the evidence linking him to the killings is largely circumstantial, it is “overwhelmingly convincing,” Imes said.

Merritt’s attorneys said the two men were best friends and investigators overlooked another possible suspect in the killings. Instead, they said, authorities zeroed in on an innocent man, but the evidence didn’t add up, noting there were no signs of an attack inside the family’s home.

“They tried his character and not the facts of this case,” defense attorney James McGee told jurors.

Many questions still remain about the family’s disappearance. Prosecutors acknowledged that details aren’t entirely clear but say the evidence from the family’s car, cellphone towers and financial accounts link Merritt to the killings.

Authorities said McStay was cutting Merritt out of the business in early February and the two met on Feb. 4 in Rancho Cucamonga, where Merritt lived at the time.

Prosecutors say financial records show Merritt tried to loot the business bank accounts just before and after the family disappeared and backdated checks to Feb. 4, knowing it was the last day anyone had contact with McStay.

Phone records show McStay called Merritt seven times after the Feb. 4 meeting, with defense lawyers arguing that McStay wouldn’t likely do that if he had just fired Merritt. </s> Jurors on Monday found Charles “Chase” Merritt guilty in the February 2010 bludgeoning deaths of the four-member McStay family of Fallbrook, whose bodies were found nearly four years later in two shallow graves near Victorville.

Merritt now faces a possible death penalty, with the same jury to hear evidence in the penalty phase that will begin Tuesday. After hearing evidence in the penalty phase, jurors will deliberate and decide whether to recommend the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

The panel, in the downtown San Bernardino Justice Center courtroom of Superior Court Judge Michael A. Smith, found him guilty of four first-degree murders.

Members of the Merritt family were among those in the crowded courtroom. They had their arms around one another as the verdicts were read. Some gasped and said, “No,” and bowed their heads when they heard the first guilty verdict.

Some left the courtroom as the verdicts were ticked off.

A member of the McStay family said, “Oh, thank God,” when the first guilty verdict was read. The family declined to speak with the media outside of court.

Asked outside court if Merritt defense attorneys would have any comment, attorney Rajan Maline said, “Not for now.”

Testimony in front of the Superior Court jury began on Jan. 7, with deliberations beginning late in the morning of May 30. The jurors announced on Friday, they had come to a verdict, but the reading of them was delayed until Monday morning.

They had considered both first- and second-degree murder in the case.

Merritt, 62, had pleaded not guilty to killing his former business associate Joseph McStay, 40, his wife, Summer, 43, and their two children: Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr., 3, in their San Diego County home. The family had recently moved from San Clemente.

Merritt was arrested and charged in November 2014 – a year after the McStay family’s skeletal remains were discovered in two shallow graves west of the 15 Freeway near Victorville. A three-pound sledge hammer investigators said was used to kill the family was buried along with their remains.

McStay and Merritt had worked together in the sale, design and building of large-scale custom waterworks for clients in Saudi Arabia and businesses such as Paul Mitchell salons. McStay found customers, and Merritt, whose business was separate from McStay’s, built the pieces.

Prosecutors said Merritt was being cut out of the relationship by McStay for poor performance, and on Feb. 1, 2010, McStay sent an email to Merritt stating Merritt owed him $42,845. The McStay family was last heard three days later.

Defense attorneys said the men were best friends and future prospects for their business relationship were too lucrative for Merritt to kill McStay and his family. They said another business associate of McStay’s, web designer, had disputes with McStay and was overlooked by investigators.

The web designer has denied having anything to do the the McStay family’s death, and prosecutors have said he was not a suspect.

After the verdicts were read, prosecutor Britt Imes brought up the issue of possible jury tampering from last week, when two alternates were apparently approached by a defense team member after deliberations started. Imes was concerned there had been no check with the 12 deliberating jurors throughout the course of the five-month-plus case.

Judge Smith said he was convinced that no attempt was made on the day the alternates were approached. But we will talk to the jurors out of an abundance of caution on Tuesday.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates. </s> Jurors on Monday found Charles “Chase” Merritt guilty in the February 2010 bludgeoning deaths of the four-member McStay family of Fallbrook, whose bodies were found nearly four years later in two shallow graves near Victorville.

Merritt now faces a possible death penalty, with the same jury to hear evidence in the penalty phase that will begin Tuesday.

The panel, in the downtown San Bernardino Justice Center courtroom of Superior Court Judge Michael A. Smith, found him guilty of four first-degree murders.

Members of the Merritt family were among those in the crowded courtroom. They had their arms around one another as the verdicts were read. Some gasped and said, “No,” and bowed their heads when they heard the first guilty verdict.

Some left the courtroom as the verdicts were ticked off.

Testimony in front of the Superior Court jury began on Jan. 7, with deliberations beginning late in the morning of May 30. The jurors announced on Friday, they had come to a verdict, but the reading of them was delayed until Monday morning.

They had considered both first- and second-degree murder in the case.

Merritt, 62, had pleaded not guilty to killing his former business associate Joseph McStay, 40, his wife, Summer, 43, and their two children: Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr., 3, in their San Diego County home. The family had recently moved from San Clemente.

Merritt was arrested and charged in November 2014 – a year after the McStay family’s skeletal remains were discovered in two shallow graves west of the 15 Freeway near Victorville. A three-pound sledge hammer investigators said was used to kill the family was buried along with their remains.

McStay and Merritt had worked together in the sale, design and building of large-scale custom waterworks for clients in Saudi Arabia and businesses such as Paul Mitchell salons. McStay found customers, and Merritt, whose business was separate from McStay’s, built the pieces.

Prosecutors said Merritt was being cut out of the relationship by McStay for poor performance, and on Feb. 1, 2010, McStay sent an email to Merritt stating Merritt owed him $42,845. The McStay family was last heard three days later.

Defense attorneys said the men were best friends and future prospects for their business relationship were too lucrative for Merritt to kill McStay and his family. They said another business associate of McStay’s, web designer, had disputes with McStay and was overlooked by investigators.

The web designer has denied having anything to do the the McStay family’s death, and prosecutors have said he was not a suspect.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates. </s> Charles 'Chase' Merritt found guilty on four counts of first-degree murder for the killing of the four members of the McStay family of Fallbrook on Monday, June 10 in San Bernardino.

Charles "Chase" Merritt was found guilty of murdering the McStay family of Fallbrook on Monday, June 10 after more than six months of testimony and deliberation.

The jury of 12 people on Friday, June 7 announced they had reached a verdict in the case, but waited until Monday to announce their decision. They deliberated for 22 hours before making a decision.

When the verdicts were read, the jury convicted Merritt of first-degree murder on all four McStay family members and found true the multiple-murder special circumstances charges.

Merritt appeared stunned by the decision, closed his eyes and lowered his head, shaking it slightly. There were audible gasps from the courtroom gallery.

Merritt could face the death penalty when the same jury hears testimony in the penalty phase of the trial. That testimony will begin at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, June 11.

San Bernardino County Supervising Deputy District Attorney Britt Imes said the state's portion of the testimony should last about three days. Lead defense attorney James McGee said their side should take two to three days.

Merritt was found guilty of bludgeoning to death Joseph and Summer McStay and the couple's young sons - 4-year-old Gianni and 3-year-old Joseph Jr. - in 2010 and burying their bodies in a San Bernardino desert.

Prosecutors built their case around the theory that greed was the basis for why Merritt subsequently killed the Fallbrook family, who lived in the Lake Rancho Viejo housing development east of Interstate 15 in Fallbrook, was last seen alive Feb. 4, 2010.

Prior to the family going missing, McStay and Merritt were business associates and good friends by most accounts. Merritt designed and built custom fountains for Joseph McStay's business, Earth Inspired Products, but, according to prosecutors, he was in debt to the tune of more than $40,000 to McStay at the time of the murders.

Detectives testified that Merritt deposited checks worth thousands of dollars from McStay after the family went missing, using QuickBooks and even called QuickBooks from his cell phone, identifying himself as Joseph McStay and asking to transfer the money in the account.

After the family went missing, relatives contacted the authorities and an investigation began. Their Fallbrook home appeared to indicate they left in a hurry that day with fruit left out and clothes scattered about the house.

Detectives thought initially that the family had gone on a trip and would return after searches on one of the family's computers showed a web search about documents needed for children traveling to Mexico.

Boosting that theory was the discovery of the family's Isuzu Trooper was found parked in a strip mall near the Mexican border and the San Diego County sheriff's investigators then turned the case over to the FBI.

Over the course of the next two years, the case gained national attention with tips coming in from all over the United States and the world.

Then, in November 2013, the skeletal remains of the four family members were discovered in shallow graves by a motorcyclist in the Mojave desert.

Records show that all four were beaten to death, most likely with a sledgehammer owned by Joseph McStay.

At that point, the investigation was taken over by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. On Nov. 7, 2014, investigators announced the arrest of Merritt and charged him with four counts of murder.

After years of delays, the trial began on Jan. 7, 2019.

Merritt's defense attorneys argued that investigators zeroed in on Merritt early on the case and never looked at anyone else. The defense repeatedly attempted to point the finger at another McStay business associate, Dan Kavanaugh, who they said was overlooked by investigators.

Jeff Pack can be reached by email at jpack@reedermedia.com. </s> Jurors on Monday found Charles “Chase” Merritt guilty in the February 2010 bludgeoning deaths of the four-member McStay family of Fallbrook, whose bodies were found nearly four years later in two shallow graves near Victorville.

Merritt now faces a possible death sentence. The verdicts, from a circumstantial-evidence case, drew gasps in the courtroom.

Jurors convicted Merritt, 62, of first-degree murder in the slayings of former business associate Joseph McStay, 40; his wife, Summer, 43; and their two children, Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr., 3; in their San Diego County home. The family had just moved there from San Clemente.

The same jury will hear evidence starting Tuesday to decide whether to recommend death by lethal injection, or life in prison without parole for Merritt.

Defense attorney James McGee patted Merritt’s hand just before the verdicts were read, and at one point Merritt, in custody since November 2014, closed his eyes while hearing the litany of convictions.

“Oh, my God,” exclaimed one woman among the family and friends seated behind Merritt. “Oh, God,” one man could be heard saying. Some of those on Merritt’s side of the courtroom bolted in tears. Their cries in the hallway could be heard inside the courtroom.

Members of the McStay family, including Joseph McStay’s mother Susan Blake, who came with son Michael, cried and hugged as the verdicts were read.

They embraced prosecutors Sean Daugherty, Britt Imes and Melissa Rodriguez and lead sheriff’s investigator Sgt. Ryan Smith after court ended for the day.

“We’re kind of shell-shocked,” defense attorney Rajan Maline said outside the courthouse, according to Law & Crime Network. Maline and McGee spoke to reporters after meeting for about two hours, post-verdict, with Merritt.

McGee said Merritt was “devastated, in shock, and disappointed.”

The prosecution, along with Merritt and McStay family members, declined to comment to a gathered group of news media outside the courthouse. San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson noted in a statement that the case was still in trial.

The jury in the downtown San Bernardino Justice Center courtroom of Superior Court Judge Michael A. Smith affirmed their verdicts for the murder convictions, as well as the multiple-murder special circumstance that made it a capital case.

Testimony in front of the Superior Court jury began on Jan. 7, with deliberations beginning late in the morning of May 30. The jurors announced Friday that they had come to verdicts, but the reading of them was delayed until Monday morning.

The panel had deliberated six days, but some were partial days. Court watchers estimated there were about 22 hours of deliberation.

The jurors had considered both first- and second-degree murder in the case.

Merritt was arrested and charged in November 2014 – a year after the McStay family’s skeletal remains were discovered in two shallow graves west of the 15 Freeway near Victorville. A three-pound sledge hammer investigators said was used to kill the family was buried along with their remains.

McStay and Merritt had worked together in the sale, design and building of large-scale custom waterworks for clients in Saudi Arabia and businesses such as Paul Mitchell salons. McStay found customers, and Merritt, whose business was separate from McStay’s, built the pieces.

The pieces featured falling water over metallic sculptures and were designed as centerpieces to create an ambience for their customers’ business.

Prosecutors said Merritt was being cut out of the relationship by McStay for poor performance, and on Feb. 1, 2010, McStay sent an email to Merritt stating Merritt owed him $42,845. The McStay family was last heard three days later.

Then, prosecutors said, Merritt began looting McStay’s business, forging checks to himself in McStay’s name and backdating them to Feb. 4, because Merritt knew that was the last day anyone would have heard from McStay, or his family.

Defense attorneys said the men were best friends and future prospects for their business relationship were too lucrative for Merritt to kill McStay and his family.

They said the checks were an effort to keep the waterworks business going after Joseph McStay disappeared, and his fate was unknown. They said another business associate of McStay’s, a web designer, had disputes with McStay and was overlooked by investigators.

The web designer has denied having anything to do the McStay family’s death, and prosecutors have said he was not a suspect.

After the verdicts were read, prosecutor Imes again brought up the issue of possible jury tampering.

There was a hearing June 3 after it was learned two alternates were approached May 30 by a defense team member after deliberations had started. He told Smith he had asked if they would agree to interviews, after trial, for a documentary. Smith banned him from the courthouse.

Imes on Monday told Smith he wanted assurances, for the sake of the trial record, that other jurors were not contacted by the now-banned defense team member during the entire length of the trial. Smith agreed to ask jurors about that on Tuesday. </s> SAN DIEGO — A Southern California man was convicted Monday of killing a family of four and burying their bodies in the desert, a case that puzzled investigators for years after the family suddenly vanished from their home in 2010.

After a trial that spanned more than four months and depended largely on circumstantial evidence, jurors in San Bernardino found 62-year-old Charles "Chase" Merritt guilty in the bludgeoning deaths of his business associate Joseph McStay, McStay's wife, Summer, and the couple's 3- and 4-year-old sons.

Merritt closed his eyes and looked down when the court clerk said the word "guilty" the first of four times to first-degree murder. Sobs came from the packed courtroom. Someone called out, "Yes!"

Prosecutors say Merritt killed the family with a sledgehammer at a time when he owed McStay money and was being cut out of the victim's business making and selling custom water fountains.

The jury also found the special circumstance of multiple murders. Prosecutors have said they would seek the death penalty if Merritt was convicted, and the penalty phase of the trial was scheduled to begin Tuesday.

Prosecutors declined to comment after the verdict, and families on both sides left without speaking to reporters.

RELATED: Verdict reached for man charged with killing family of 4

When the McStay family disappeared there was no evidence of struggle or foul play in their Fallbrook home, but there were signs of a hasty departure – unopened groceries left on the counter and the family's dogs still in the backyard.

Four days after their disappearance, the McStay’s Isuzu Trooper was located near the San Ysidro border.

Grainy surveillance video of a family of four crossing the border on foot and Google inquiries found on the family's home computer researching documents required for travel to Mexico, initially led the focus of the search south of the border – leading to speculation that the McStays may have left voluntarily.

More than three years later, though, in November 2013, a motorcyclist found the remains of the McStay bodies buried in shallow graves in the Mojave Desert near Victorville.

RELATED: McStay Murder Trial: Brother of Joseph McStay testifies about interactions with defendant

A sledge hammer was also found in one of the graves.

Investigators ruled the deaths a homicide and determined that the McStays were fatally bludgeoned inside their Fallbrook home, although no trace of blood was ever found there.

In 2014, Merritt, was arrested for the murders. He went on trial in January of this year.

RELATED: McStay Murder Trial: Mother of Joseph McStay first witness to take the stand

Prosecutors said Merritt killed the McStays over money after he was being cut out of the decorative fountain business the two owned. Prosecutors also said Merritt had stolen $42,000 from the business – which Joseph McStay had discovered. They claim surveillance video and cell phone evidence link him to the crime.

“That greed and self-interest motivated a man to kill a family of four and take them from this earth,” the prosecution said during trial.

Merritt's attorneys said the two men were best friends and investigators overlooked another possible suspect in the killings. Instead, they said, authorities zeroed in on an innocent man, but the evidence didn't add up, noting there were no signs of an attack inside the family's home.

"They tried his character and not the facts of this case," defense attorney James McGee told jurors.

Many questions still remain about the family's disappearance. Prosecutors acknowledge details of the killings aren't entirely clear but say the evidence from the family's car, cellphone towers and financial accounts link Merritt to the killings. </s> SAN BERNARDINO — Charles "Chase" Merritt was convicted Monday of killing a family of four and burying their bodies in the desert, a case that puzzled investigators for years after the family suddenly vanished from their home in 2010.

After a trial that spanned more than four months and depended largely on circumstantial evidence, jurors in San Bernardino found the 62-year-old Merritt guilty in the bludgeoning deaths of his business associate Joseph McStay, McStay's wife, Summer, and the couple's 3- and 4-year-old sons.

Merritt closed his eyes and looked down when the court clerk said the word "guilty" the first of four times to first-degree murder. Sobs came from the packed courtroom. Someone called out, "Yes!"

Prosecutors say Merritt killed the family with a sledgehammer at a time when he owed McStay money and was being cut out of the victim's business making and selling custom water fountains.

The jury also found the special circumstance of multiple murders. Prosecutors have said they would seek the death penalty if Merritt was convicted, and the penalty phase of the trial was scheduled to begin Tuesday.

Prosecutors declined to comment after the verdict, escorting the McStays' relatives from the courthouse.

After the McStay family disappeared, authorities found bowls of uneaten popcorn at their San Diego County home, which had no signs of forced entry, and their car parked at a strip mall near the Mexican border.

For years, officials couldn't determine what happened to the McStays. At one point, investigators said they believed the family had gone to Mexico voluntarily, though they couldn't say why.

In 2013, their bodies were found in shallow graves in the desert after an off-road motorcyclist discovered skeletal remains in the area. Authorities also unearthed a rusty sledgehammer that they said was used to kill the family.

"It was blow, after blow, after blow to a child's skull," the Los Angeles Times reported prosecutor Britt Imes said during closing arguments.

Merritt, who worked with McStay in his water features business, was arrested in 2014.

Authorities said they traced Merritt's cellphone to the area of the desert gravesites in the days after the family disappeared and to a call seeking to close McStay's online bookkeeping account.

Merritt referred to McStay in the past tense in an interview with investigators after the family vanished, and while the evidence linking him to the killings is largely circumstantial, it is "overwhelmingly convincing," Imes said.

Merritt's attorneys said the two men were best friends and investigators overlooked another possible suspect in the killings. Instead, they said, authorities zeroed in on an innocent man, but the evidence didn't add up, noting there were no signs of an attack inside the family's home.

"They tried his character and not the facts of this case," defense attorney James McGee told jurors.

Many questions still remain about the family's disappearance. Prosecutors acknowledge details of the killings aren't entirely clear but say the evidence from the family's car, cellphone towers and financial accounts link Merritt to the killings.

Authorities said McStay was cutting Merritt out of the business in early February and the two met on Feb. 4 in Rancho Cucamonga, where Merritt lived at the time.

Prosecutors say financial records show Merritt tried to loot the business bank accounts just before and after the family disappeared and backdated checks to Feb. 4, knowing it was the last day anyone had contact with McStay.

Phone records show McStay called Merritt seven times after the Feb. 4 meeting, with defense lawyers arguing that McStay wouldn't likely do that if he had just fired Merritt.
In San Bernardino, California, Charles "Chase" Merritt is found guilty of four counts of murder in the 2013 deaths of the McStay family.