Checks (2)

A key evidentiary piece to the case against Charles Ray Merritt is a series of checks that Merritt wrote for himself against victim, Joseph McStay’s bank account. The check writing is purported to have begun for the very first time on February 1, 2010 (on McStay’s “Custom” account) and continues until February 8, 2010 (the same day that the McStay Trooper is towed from the San Ysidro border, strip mall parking lot).

There are five checks (2 of which were written for Metro Sheet Metal, and hand delivered to that company by Charles Merritt) that were proven to have been written after February 4, 2010, but were then backdated to that date.

None of the checks drafted after the 4th were written from a computer in the McStay home. It is uncertain if the check that was written on February 2 was written from the McStay residence or drafted elsewhere.

On February 4, 2010 at 7:59 PM a check was alleged to have been written in the McStay home, this check to Charles Merritt, referenced Paul Mitchell, in the amount of $4000.00. It was never printed and it was, like all the other checks written on the “Custom” account, deleted from the register, and only found by way of an “activity” report that would not immediately be apparent to the user.

Checks 103-104