SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (NEWS 8) - The mother of Joseph McStay was the first witness to take the stand Tuesday in a San Bernardino murder trial where a business associate is accused of murdering the McStay family of four inside their Fallbrook home.
Susan Blake told the jury she gave the defendant, Charles "Chase" Merritt, thousands of dollars after the McStay family went missing in February 2010, because Merritt told her he needed the money to keep the McStay's fountain business running.
At the time, Blake had no idea what had happened to the missing family. Three years later, an off-road motorcyclist discovered the family's bones in the high desert near Victorville.
Blake testified that when her other son, Mikey, told her the family's bodies had be found in 2013, she became emotional and fell to the ground.
Six months later, she visited the grave site and fell to her knees. It was shocking to see the four crosses planted in the ground and she said she would never go back to that place again.
Merritt, 61, is facing the death penalty if convicted of using a sledgehammer to murder Joseph McStay, his wife, Summer and the couple's 3- and 4-year-old sons.
Prosecutors allege a financial motive for the murders. In opening statements Monday, January 7 prosecutors said greed, debt and a gambling problem led Merritt to kill the McStay family.
A prosecutor said Merritt wrote checks for more than $21,000 on his partner's QuickBooks account after the family vanished in 2010. But the defense said they have the wrong man, and suggested the killer was another business partner.
