With all the advancements in forensics there is a false confidence that only guilty parties are convicted, however, People v. Merritt is an example of a conviction attained on nothing more than suggestions made by the prosecution. There is literally no evidentiary support for the state’s case against Charles Merritt. None. Every assertion relied on at the prelim was proven inaccurate at trial. And we have Prop 115 to thank for prelims that don’t truly vet the state’s case against a defendant. But lawyers don’t care. Not even defense lawyers. Poor policy often makes an attorney’s job easier. It’s the defendants who get screwed. And ultimately victims don’t fair all that well either. How can they know justice when the actual killers go free, and the innocent are locked up?

The prosecution suggested that the McStay family was killed in their home on Thursday evening, Feb. 4, 2010.

There is no evidence of a murder taking place in the McStay residence, or that the family wasn’t alive beyond that night. There is a lot to suggest that the McStays were alive and living life as they usually did, well into Friday morning, Feb. 5.

The prosecution suggested that Chase Merritt drove to the McStay residence on Thursday evening, Feb. 4, 2010, bludgeoned them all to death, by himself, then carted their bodies away, burying them “who knows when”? This is supposed to be proven by headlights captured by a neighbor’s surveillance, at a time prior to signs of life ceasing at the McStay residence.

This is a completely nuts theory, the headlights to this day have never been proven to belong to a vehicle of anyone involved in this crime. No one knows who was driving past the neighbor’s that night–could have been someone who got lost. And this “theory” contradicts a lone killer scenario also put forward by DAs, as there is clearly someone still alive and active in the McStay residence after this. Just nuts!

The prosecution suggested that all the above happens because Joseph McStay fired Chase Merritt for theft.

What? Where is the proof of theft? Where is the proof that Joseph McStay fired Chase? There is none. The opposite. Everything that happened that week was business as usual.

The prosecution suggested that Chase is then involved in an elaborate cover-up, involving driving the McStay Trooper to the San Ysidro border and cleaning a house that when discovered, isn’t clean.

There is zero proof of this. Zero.