Blood spatter expert testifies for Merritt's defense

The defense team for Charles "Chase" Merritt, accused of killing the McStay family in Fallbrook in 2010, called forensic consultant Randolph Bruce Beasley Monday, April 22, in an attempt to discredit the prosecution's case.

The prosecution has contended that Merritt killed the family inside the Fallbrook home and transported the bodies to bury them in a San Bernardino desert.

Beasley was asked to testify about injuries inflicted on the McStay victims and the resulting blood spattering patterns and evidence collected at the scene.

"When a body suffers these type of injuries that you documented, do you see blood evidence?" defense attorney James McGee asked.

"Usually, yes," Beasley responded.

Beasley also presented blood spatter and swipe testimony that focused on demonstrations and comparisons made between the prosecution's insistence that a table that the state said had blood spatter on it that was missed during the crime scene investigation but noticed in photographs.

Beasly said the white stains seen on the table – which is no longer available for testimony – were not consistent with blood and conducted his own experiment using pedestals he had constructed to show the differences between the alleged stains photographed on the table and the results of his own experiments.

Magee suggested to the witness that there would have been significant blood at the scene had the attack occurred in the house.

"It would be a lot to clean up," Beasley said.

On cross-examination, the prosecution challenged Beasley's processes and testimony and questioned the validity of his experiments.

"I think they are entitled to put on evidence for somebody to say, 'I don't think it is blood and here's why,'" Superior Court Judge Michael A. Smith said.

Beasley was recalled Tuesday, April 23, to testify and was grilled by the prosecution.

The prosecutor asked Beasley if the paint on the sledgehammer and paint on Summer McStay's bra could be consistent with something happening in the house and Beasley answered, "Potentially."

Chief forensic analyst Gregg Steutchman was called in to testify about video evidence in the case.

He specifically testified April 24, about security video from the neighbor's house and video of the sheriff's department driving Merritt's truck. Steutchman contended that Merritt's truck side light doesn't match between the two videos.

Merritt is accused of killing the McStay family, Joseph, Summer and their two young boys who lived in the Lake Rancho Viejo housing development east of Interstate 15 in Fallbrook.

The McStay family was last seen alive Feb. 4, 2010, and relatives reported them missing a few days later. 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.

Prosecutors maintain that greed was the basis for Merritt committing the murders and have stated they will be seeking the death penalty in the case.

Defense attorneys have said that investigators zeroed in on Merritt early on the case and never looked at anyone else, including Kavanaugh, who they said had threatened the family due to his dissatisfaction with being bought out of the company by McStay.

Corporate Attorney Michael Jonathan Leonard to testify about a contract he drafted in July 2011 on behalf of a company with the intention of purchasing Earth Inspired Products in a transaction with Dan Kavanaugh.

"As part of the sale, did Mr. Kavanaugh represent as part of the transaction that he was the sole proprietor of this business?" McGee asked over the objection of the prosecution.

"He did not verbally or in writing to me, he was the opposing party," Leonard said. "So, he didn't communicate with me or anything like that to me, directly."

"But was that the term of the contract that he had to be the sole proprietor?" McGee asked.

"That's the way I drafted the contract to protect my client of debauchery, yes," Leonard said.

"You wouldn't want him to buy something that somebody else owns," McGee said.

"Hopefully not," Leonard said.

In cross-examination, prosecutors verified that Leonard's role was only to draft the agreement and he hadn't done any due diligence on the contract to verify individuals involved in the contract.

The court was canceled Thursday, April 25, due to an undisclosed health issue report affecting McGee.

He returned to court when it resumed Monday, April 29, to hear testimony from forensic accountant Dennis Shogren to go over Joseph McStay's financial records in relation to Chase Merritt.

The testimony was conducted after press time.

After several weeks of audio recordings only in the case, a live feed of the court proceedings has resumed and can be watched live at http://www.lawandcrime.com.

Jeff Pack can be contacted at [email protected].