McStay Family Murder Trial Prosecution Opening Statement

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: good morning how does this family of four disappear off the face of the earth how does this family of four a husband who's running a business a mom who's raising her two kids fixing up a house they just bought recently how do they just disappear just up and gone ladies and gentlemen the evidence in this case will show you not only the how but the why and especially the who the how is that each member of this family that you see here joseph mcstay 40 years old his wife summer there are two kids gianni who was four years old and joe jr who four days before they were murdered had just turned three the how is that they were beaten about the head and face until they die and then they were taken a hundred miles away from their home and buried in the desert they were buried in such a manner that animals tore at their remains that they decomposed to almost nothing but a set of a few bones the why boils down to a basic human emotion something that we discussed during during jury selection the why boils down to greed the why boils down to greed and greed's child fraud and the who is sitting here in court today charles man the who is the person who while claiming to be joseph's best friend was nowhere to be found when it came to calling the police when they were missing didn't call it in the who was while claiming to be joseph's best friend the man who while claiming to be joseph's best friend was forging checks from joseph's business and taking money from him putting his hands in the cookie jar the who the evidence will show is the person whose cell phone activity for significant portions of time during significant days and times around the time of the murder is off the grid nowhere to be found when all other times it's always found the who is the person who desperately tried to cover his tracks after the murders the who is the person who excuse me in attempting to cover his tracks the evidence will show he misled investigators he talked in circles and he played the victim the who is the person who even after the murders took five thousand dollars from joseph's mother under the guise of completing a project and never paid her back the who ladies and gentlemen is the defendant and those lies and that misleading that talking in circles and that playing the victim worked for a time for three almost four years this is the mixed days in 2010 they lived in a town called fallbrook they moved into the residence in november of 2009 prior to that the family lived for a brief period of time with joseph's mother susan blake in the thomas farms area just south of corona fallbrook is a town that's south of temecula north of escondido north of san diego they moved into the house at avocado vista lane near the end of a cul-de-sac into a quiet neighborhood they drove two vehicles the green dodge you see here in the driveway of the residence the evidence will show it was always parked there and typically summer drove that vehicle the family also owns this white disuzu trooper that joseph primarily drove joseph had a business the business was called earth inspired products the business started well before 2005 and what they did is sold indoor water features the business needed wanted a water fountain inside of their business joseph would provide it he started the business initially with a guy named you'll hear about named dan kavanagh and kavanagh was a web guy created the web page and the business essentially was a customer would order a fountain it was already made and they would basically retail it to the customer in about 2006 or 2007 joseph met the defendant who fancied himself a entrepreneur a welder a designer and joseph began building custom fountains in other words of a business or a residence or someone wanted a particular type of fountain or style of fountain his company would build it and he began working with the defendant and the defendant owned his own business called iDesign so there were two separate entities of the business on february 15th 2010 that was a monday san diego sheriff's department was notified of a missing persons report that missing persons report was called in by justice brother michael mcstack who had been to the residence on the 13th the saturday before with the defendant and you're going to hear from michael mcstack and mike mcstack is going to tell you i went and the defendant pointed out a small crack the window in the backyard was open and that led into joseph's study he pointed it out and said that he had noticed it before and no one had heard from my brother so i went in and i opened the front door for the defendant and he wouldn't come in he wouldn't come anywhere near the house so he waited two days he thought there was a time period he had to wait when adults go missing and he waited a couple days and he called the san diego sheriff's department and they arrived at the residence on the 15th that's monday deputy tingly of the san diego sheriff's department came to the residence and took the initial missing persons investigation what was learned was on the 10th of february that was the wednesday prior to this that a welfare check had been called in by dan kavanagh from hawaii he also went into the residence and took some initial pictures and you can notice from some of these pictures there's newspapers on the floor drawers are out this is looking down the stairway to the left here is going to be the kitchen to the right is going to be the living room there's a table here and some chairs took some photographs of the upstairs bathroom you'll note here on the left is a child's onesie several items of clothing on the bathroom counter took a picture into joseph's study and this is the window that michael mcstady came through when he came in you can notice this lamp here that will become important here in a minute this is a photograph of joseph and summer's bedroom you'll notice in the photograph this lamp is knocked over after taking these photographs conducting the initial interview with michael mcstady deputy tingley called in detectives and two detectives from the san diego sheriff's department came to the to the residence detective troy de gaulle and suzanne fisk came to the residence on that same day on the 15th of february what they learned through their investigation was that the last contact anyone in the family summer joseph anyone had with anyone was on february 4th 2010 that's a thursday they learned that that week in particular february 2nd and february 3rd a friend of a mutual friend of joseph and summer his name is mcgyver mcgrar his first name is mcgyver was at the residence helping them paint and they learned that on february 8th the family's trooper the white de suzu trooper that i showed you a photograph of earlier was towed and it was towed from a parking lot right across from the united states mexico border in this parking lot here san diego sheriff's department got a hold of the tow company they discovered that in this parking lot in this shopping center here in san ysidro the car was towed at about 11 11 30 on the night of the 8th that's monday the 8th they learned that the car could have been there as early as 7 a.m that security really doesn't start going around looking for cars that aren't supposed to be parked there any longer until after the last business is closed which is about 9 o'clock they noticed it they towed the vehicle because it wasn't supposed to be parked there san diego sheriff's department san diego sheriff's department secured the vehicle took it to their impound lot here's a photograph taken by the tow company at 1101 on february 8th 2011 or the security company or the tow company san diego sheriff's department processed that trooper including taking what they call swabs for biological material particularly dna from the steering wheel from the door handles from the center console from the gear shifter they did that as precaution again keep in mind they've only known about this family for a few days when all this is happening and they're discovering all this information they learned that joseph had someone by the name of charles merritt that had done work with them and in fact was at the house with mike mcstay two days before the missing persons report they also learned that charles merritt was the one that alerted joseph's mother on february 9th 2010 so they went to interview charles merritt this is approximately 48 hours maybe a little bit less maybe a little bit more after san diego detectives have first learned that this family even exists so keep in mind so they went to the defendant's residence he lived in rancho cucamonga at a complex near church street basically condos townhomes apartment type complex they met with him there he made clear that joseph was earth inspired products and that he was i design and that he did most but not all of the custom fountains that joseph's company did and he says the following [00:13:22] Speaker ?: joseph was one of my best friends [00:13:26] Speaker 2: and obviously he's a business associate and that's not something i want to live with [00:13:31] Speaker 1: detectives asked him about joseph's relationship with summer [00:13:37] Speaker 2: he said about his wife he loved her oh yeah yeah he definitely loved her um he she's a pain in the butt and he was because he went any domestic violence did you ever observe how many joseph was [00:13:59] Speaker 1: they next asked about basic questions again it's a missing persons investigation they're still in the first two days of this how tall joseph was and how much he weighed weights [00:14:11] Speaker 2: so how tall did you tell us how much he weighed shorter than me and i can actually tell you about what he weighed only because i did one of these articles here so his weight was 175 but he was five eight i would guess he was let me see next they asked about the condition of the house [00:14:58] Speaker 1: if he had seen it in particular that light that was in joseph's study that i showed you the photograph of he was asked about that [00:15:05] Speaker 2: but i can tell you you know in the shadow of a doubt i know for a fact that that light i had never seen it off okay he always he always left it on because his kids get up in the middle of the night and they go downstairs and get water out of the out of the refrigerator and he always left that light on and the door opened so that they didn't fall down the stairs [00:15:28] Speaker 1: he talked they asked him questions about the children gianni and joseph jr always [00:15:40] Speaker 2: you don't understand these kids because his boys were i mean they would get up on the kitchen i saw it on youtube [00:15:48] Speaker ?: no they're on youtube [00:15:50] Speaker 3: okay i saw how you were getting to go [00:15:53] Speaker 2: that's a good word for it she did it they were they were corporal punishment no she didn't believe [00:16:01] Speaker ?: she didn't believe in any kind of corporal she i swear she would go stop it stop it stop it [00:16:10] Speaker 2: and she would do that for a half an hour [00:16:14] Speaker ?: until they lost interest in whatever they were doing they'd go about doing something else it was [00:16:19] Speaker 2: oh god yeah [00:16:22] Speaker 1: they asked about those vehicles that i showed you earlier the green dodge and the white trooper where they were typically parked do you know where you usually park [00:16:33] Speaker ?: do you follow the car the white SUV [00:16:35] Speaker 2: where that was a good park right directly if you follow the house on the street on the street she always parked the truck in the driveway she didn't like him parking the white car next to it because she couldn't get the kids in or out [00:16:54] Speaker 1: he might be asking or wondering why is he planning these clips and why did i stress why does he keep stressing two times that the sheriff's department's only known about this case for less than 48 hours because you may have noticed something about some of those clips you may have noticed something about his speech in those clips this is their first contact with him san diego sheriff's department san diego sheriff's department noticed and this is what they said and this was his response [00:17:26] Speaker 3: do you rather acknowledge your information which indicates to you that you're dead [00:17:31] Speaker ?: no the reason why i asked is because you have used the past tense [00:17:37] Speaker 3: about joe a couple times and you said joe was joe but people don't do that with people any explanation as to why you may have done that [00:17:49] Speaker 2: and further [00:18:03] Speaker 1: it's interesting because you know we deal with families and friends and people all the time [00:18:09] Speaker 3: and often times they will notify them that they will still use the present tense because it really hasn't set in and that's why i'm asking you to use the past tense a couple times which is really unusual [00:18:22] Speaker 2: yeah i have no idea you know i'm not sure what what i used past tense and what we did car text with but i have no idea why you said that joe was my best friend oh i did you did i don't know why [00:18:46] Speaker 1: no one knows that they're dead san diego's conducting a missing persons investigation and he's saying joseph was my best friend he's saying the kids were energetic in fact if you notice on one clip he corrects himself and says joseph always leaves joseph always left that light on you'll hear the entire interview and you'll hear that he does slip in and out [00:19:24] Speaker 2: do you have to survive right now right now behind well actually right now [00:19:29] Speaker ?: here pretty much he because these two these two projects if you see $173,000 is what he's paid me $158,000 is what he owed me before these two projects he owed $15,000 came to IOM $15,000 okay with these two projects they owed $26,000 so he was he was then oh he made a little over $10,000 [00:20:02] Speaker 1: somewhere almost $11,000 this is the email he provides San Diego and becomes important here in a little bit as well February 1st at 11.42 a.m. what he doesn't mention as he's trying to explain this to these the evidence will show very tired detectives who've been working up two days trying to find this family is he never mentions that the total that he owes joseph is $42,845 not joseph owing him $11,000 Chase paid $173,255 owed $158 has been overpaid $15,045 plus plus $27,800 he doesn't mention that when he's explaining and what he ends up saying is well joseph's going to owe me $11,000 after these two projects because $26,000 minus $15,000 is about $11,000 two days later on February 19th 2010 San Diego Sheriff's Department secures a search warrant at the Avocado Vista residence in the interim a few things had happened joseph's mother joseph's mother [00:21:30] Speaker ?: joseph's mother joseph's mother joseph's mother joseph's mother joseph's mother [00:21:30] Speaker 1: joseph's mother joseph's brother joseph's brother had been in his mind he'd been given permission to take the computers out he took the computers out when he was told by detective DeGaul bring them back we have a search warrant he brought them back so the house looks different than it did on the 15th this is the entryway to the house this is the front room as you walk into the entryway this is the carpet the doorway to the residence is in the upper right there's what appears to be some kind of stain bleach stain on the carpet near the residence summer's UGG boots it appears we're outside on the porch and there's sandals here this is the kitchen area you'll notice here by the island half of the island has blue painter's tape you'll notice here on this table there's a calculator and you'll notice that all the drawers that were there when Deputy Kingley was there have been put back in you'll notice there's a paint can more painter's tape and this is the front room and in the back corner of the residence is a futon there's several items here on the kitchen counter this is the picture of the futon the futon appeared to be missing a cover evidence obtained from the estate's computer shows that it had a cover it was an off-white woven material type cover this table again with the calculator pay close attention to the evidence about this table again blue painter's tape around the downstairs bathroom a I don't know how you describe that shaggy toilet bowl cover with no accompanying floor mat this is one of the upstairs bathrooms with newspaper painter's tape again not completed this is the entry way into Joseph's downstairs office there's the blinds that Mike McStay came in through that window across from the desk is a closet this is a toilet um placard 16 here denotes earth inspired products checks the top check was 42-45 San Diego investigators also obtained a surveillance video from the neighbor across the street her name was Jennifer Mitchley she said that of course during the initial missing persons they're talking to neighbors they're talking to everybody they can she found a video something happened on the video on her surveillance video so she brought it to San Diego's attention San Diego went and recovered a very small portion of the night of February 4th they didn't they didn't obtain all of February 4th or the days out there after they just obtained a very small portion and the rest of it doesn't exist anymore but from that residence what you're going to see is a video you're going to see a car pass down the cul-de-sac you're going to see headlights turn on from the McStay residence which is here by the great marker you're going to see a vehicle come out and park or not park but hit its brakes approximately where that vehicle is there on that photograph that's not the vehicle this is a Google Earth image here's the video draw your attention to the upper right of the screen to the lower left that's Ms. Mitchley's porch and this video was from 747 on the night of February 4th the vehicle passes headlights will come on and the car hits the brakes the initial investigators initially believe this was the family's Isuzu trooper we'll discuss that a little bit further as we go well spoiler alert the trooper doesn't have an exhaust pipe on the passenger side San Diego detectives continued to investigate the case there were a lot of leaks that went nowhere there was a lot of sightings of the family that didn't pan out there was some indication the family may have gone across the border given the location of their vehicle nothing really panned out for San Diego they were given a certain set of facts and those facts boxed them in at some point they packaged up their evidence and turned it over to the FBI and actually that was shortly before November 11th 2013 on November 11th 2013 at a location in the high desert in the Victor Valley area just west of the 15 freeway a motorcycle rider was riding his dirt bike his name is John Bluth to the southwest of this particular freeze on the screen is a landfill a dump and to the right there you can see the 15 freeway Mr. Bluth was riding his dirt bike and he called the police [00:27:31] Speaker 4: police arrived [00:27:53] Speaker 1: they obviously began a search the homicide team went out and over the course of about three days two or three days they began searching the area for any human bones or anything else and they found two graves it's tough to see here right in this area towards the top of that photograph that's the 15 freeway these semi trucks are heading northbound towards Vegas on the 15 freeway this area is depressed it can't be seen from the freeway you can see cars from there but the cars can't see you there's two graves here in this area here you can see one in the lower left quadrant and one towards the middle towards the top this area here on the left of the photograph is the land that's the dump this mountain to the right will become important here in a little bit on the other side of that mountain is a town called Oro Grand and again this is a view facing westbound and these are the graves here in the middle of the photograph or at least one of the graves they began the painstaking process of going through the graves they located several items potential evidentiary value outside of the graves including a towel that appeared to be torn a piece of woven off-white cloth the right cup of a black bra in this photograph it doesn't look black this is outside of the grave after three years they divvied them up just for organization's sake into grave A and grave B in grave A was an adult male Joseph McStay Senior also along with him was Gianni the four-year-old grave A had been disturbed by animal activity quite a bit of animal activity and in fact both of Joseph's lower bones his lower leg bones were outside of the grave located outside of the grave there is a piece of material and they attempt to go layer by layer as they do this collecting anything or noting anything that they find here you can begin to see Joseph's ribs there in the center of the photograph and to the upper right in the upper right quadrant is his head as they dug further they found that he was wrapped with a white electrical cord he also had across his lower body a red what appeared to be a tie-down strap and he was encased in a woven type fabric here you can see the red tie-down strap and the cord to the right is his ribs and his head area another view of the cord and the tie-down strap to the left here by the compass would be where his lower legs are you can tell they're not they're no longer attached in grave B was Summer mixed day and her baby Joe Jude it was not as disturbed as grave A that being grave B it did have a piece of shaggy type material as they dug deeper they found Summer's pants and her underwear near her head this is this is her head with her hair that's a close-up view of her underwear and sweats and the sweats were unfurled at the San Bernardino County Crime Lab and had what appeared to be bleach stains on them also in that grave was a black backpack and one of the boys always wore a black backpack inside of the backpack was a paintbrush a pick and a child spoon paintbrush had white paint on it and on the McStay's home computer there's a photograph of Joe Jr. holding a paintbrush that looks almost identical to that one also in that grave was a three pound Stanley sledgehammer the sledgehammer had on its handle white paint the left cup of Summer's black bra was found under her body she was laying face down almost on her side the black bra had on it a white paint drip that's not dripping as if she was painting while standing up but if she was on her side the paint stripping to the side that paint was sampled along with the paint on the hammer by the FBI's lab the FBI determined that it was consistent from coming from the same source the paint on the hammer and the paint on the gun there was also two tire tracks there was rainy weather on February 5th as I recall in the high desert there was two tire tracks each set leading to the graves and they measured 73 and 76 inches which is not consistent with the trooper there's the other set the reason I say consistent with rainy muddy weather is it had been three years over three years since the family went missing the autopsies were conducted along with the excavation with the forensic anthropologist by the name of Dr. Alexa Gray she was out there collecting bones helping with the excavation in her roles to figure out what bone it is what part of the body it is and what person it goes with male, female, child, adult so the autopsies took place over the course of the number of days Joseph McStade Jr this was all that was left of Joseph McStade Jr the baby the skull piece found by Mr. Bluth several fragments and three rib bones one of which this middle one was found in the grave this summer also in the grave with summer was a diaper and a cell phone case Gianni McStade these are his remains no clothing was found for Joseph Jr only a pair of shorts was found that was associated with Gianni this is a view of Gianni's skull showing fracture along the suture that a child has in their head he died of multiple blunt force impacts to the head he had multiple skull fractures each side in the back and in the front autopsy was performed by Dr. Shannakarn Shangtree of the San Bernardino County coroner's office this is another impact site on Gianni's skull Summer McStade what you're looking at here is all the remains of Summer McStade essentially several pieces of skull her jaw the clothing here is on the upper part of this and the lower part here was a clump of material that looked consistent with painter's tape you can tell a blue taint right here and you'll see better pictures of it during the evidence blue painter's tape a clump of blue painter's tape Summer's essentially the pieces of Summer's skull they placed them together and realized that she had multiple jaw fractures she's been hit in the front of her face fracturing her jaw in several places she was also struck in the back of the head and in the front of the head numerous times Joseph McStade Sr. was again entombed in this woven type material he was the most preserved of the bodies here's a view of his lower body you'll see his lower legs are bleached white from outside of the grave behind his head was this extension cord that was knotted Joseph McStade had a that you can see here in the middle of the photograph you can also see to the left the red tie-down strap and the electrical cord on the back of his head was a clear impact site for blunt force trauma on the back right of his head he also had him on the back left on the front as well as the ribs and the so here's a view of the left side of his head in the back the fracture as well as his tibia the shin bone on the lower left leg had been fractured as well likely from a strike consistent with a strike from the front and the bone breaks towards the back all four members of the McStade family were killed by blunt force trauma to the head so San Bernardino County sheriffs took over the investigation because the bodies were located in San Bernardino County they began work essentially they formed a team made up of individuals from another homicide team and they were placed on this case to investigate only this case and they did it for over a year and they learned some interesting things about what had occurred on the 1st through the 3rd of February they obtained Joseph's QuickBooks records now if you're not familiar with QuickBooks you will be by the end of this QuickBooks is an online basically ledger you can create checks you can create invoices you can add cash payments you can do all sorts of things and it shows up on a ledger Joseph had two essentially two QuickBooks accounts that were associated with each other one for the prefabricated fountains one for the custom fountains the custom fountains was relatively new there aren't a whole lot of entries but been going on for about a year year or two on the custom side and the prefabricated side went on a lot longer obviously they looked at Joseph's QuickBooks records and what they found was on February 1st is QuickBooks was accessed remember during the course of the defendant's interview when he said Joseph brought me checks and I said wait a minute three days earlier he was already writing checks this was what they found they found that within 30 24 within 42 minutes of receiving that email from Joseph that hey I have overpaid you $42,000 $845 within 45 minutes within that next hour Joseph's records QuickBooks was accessed at 1224 p.m. on February 1st and this was not done from any of the computers seized from the McStay records a vendor was added Charles Merritt all lowercase Joseph McStay when he entered a business or a person would always capitalize the first letter properly of the word Charles Merritt was added as a vendor on 1224 on February 1st what's also interesting is that for a person familiar with the program they would know that Charles Merritt properly capitalized was already a vendor and would simply be a pull down menu a pull down entry into the into the records a check was created at 1234 for $2,500 to Charles Merritt another check was created on February 1st for $2,500 to Charles Merritt at 1237 the second check was printed and then deleted now what happens when you delete a check on QuickBooks is it won't show up on the ledger so if you deleted the check it's not going to show up check number blah blah blah where it will show is in the account activity that all of this activity happened that check was printed and deleted the first check that was created was numbered 4093 the second check was numbered 4092 this one was for $2,500 that check was deleted neither of those checks were cast or deposited but the next day someone logs in to Joseph's QuickBooks accounts to EIP's QuickBooks accounts it's not on for many of the mixed days computers and two checks are added to guess who Charles Merritt printed and deleted on the custom side of the count Joseph had never deleted a check not only did he properly capitalize names he never deleted a check but on February 2nd on the custom account checks were deleted that was a check for $0 that check was printed then it was deleted and then there was another check for $2,495 that check was printed and deleted and that same day February 2nd was cashed at Union Bank this is the check here in the lower half now what's interesting about that is the date February 2nd that it was cashed at Union Bank deposit here S-A might mean Saudi Arabia I should back up they had a project they were going to build a fountain in Saudi Arabia all lower case on the Charles Merritt what's interesting is on that same date February 2nd that's the date that MacGyver was at the house helping them paint if you'll recall and he left on February 2nd and he couldn't come back until no he left on February 3rd and he couldn't come back to the 6th and just Summer got mad he'll tell you she was mad he kept asking her and that's when he realized they're not contacting me back she must really be mad or something happened but in any event [00:44:07] Speaker 5: he was there on the 2nd and he on the 2nd [00:44:14] Speaker 1: Joseph gave Charles Merritt a handwritten check for $100 not a handwritten check for $2,595 but a handwritten check on February 2nd for $100 that was deposited into a bank account that was created on February 3rd by Charles Merritt the large check all lowercase Charles Merritt was cashed February 4th is the last day you know the mixed days were heard from so what I'm going to do is take kind of an analysis of both QuickBooks other evidence including cell phones you're going to hear from Kevin Bowles Kevin Bowles is a special agent with the FBI he has worked previously on their fugitive task force when someone runs from the law and they have a cell phone he would work on locating them based on their cell phone records and he's done a lot of work in this area so those records were given to him those being Joseph's cell phone records and the defendant's cell phone records were given to Kevin Bowles for an analysis what he found was that on February 4th at 1151 Joseph calls a number 949-492-8090 that is associated with Joseph's bank in San Clemente the union bank in San Clemente he doesn't call that number all that often he has called it in the past around the time they were buying the house they were moving in he doesn't call it all that often a few minutes later he calls the phone number associated with the defendant 3740102 two minutes later he calls the defendant after that at 1156 he signs into his QuickBooks and then signs out two minutes later at this point that February 2nd check has cleared the bank after he logs out of QuickBooks and not having seen the check because it was deleted on the ledger again calls his bank at 1215 that's a different number same bank while he's doing this he's traveling 15 northbound in the general area of Lake Elsinore he arrives in the Rancho Cucamonga area and his cell phone is communicating with towers in the Rancho Cucamonga area at 1252 there's a call to the defendant at 101 there's another call to the defendant and at 303 is the last time that his phone makes contact with that tower in Rancho Cucamonga this was the day of the meeting at Chick-fil-A Chick-fil-A is in that general area however just as internet access during that two hour period is almost constant internet access on his phone after the 1252 phone call to the defendant between 1252 and 101 there are 13 frantic phone calls primarily from the defendant to his who he called his wife it was actually his girlfriend Catherine Jarvis she lived with him there in Rancho Cucamonga and if you'll notice there's a call at 1252 1254 another one at 1254 1255 1256 1257 another one at 1257 1258 1259 finally she calls him back at 1 that's all in a period of nine minutes between 3.03pm and 3.07pm if there was a meeting it would be after the meeting Joseph calls the defendant seven times during that time period the longest call lasting 2 minutes and 37 seconds was at 548pm that night his phone Joseph's phone is again traveling southbound back home that 548 phone call he's in the Fallbrook area when he makes that phone call 548pm after that 548pm contact with the defendant the defendant's cell phone goes off the grid and that is to say it's either turned off it's in airplane mode or it's somewhere where it's not connecting with any towers from 548pm on February 4th to 932pm his cell phone is not connecting any towers and there are during that time period 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 calls between 609 and 904 from Catherine Jarvis his wife at the time to the defendant and voicemail messages are left now the way we know that just looking at the record you'll also know a lot about cell phones at the end of this trial is that this gives the geographic location as well as other information for the cell towers that his phone was connecting with during that time period during those calls that he was getting from his wife Catherine Jarvis he's not connecting with any tower it's actually more than three and a half hour period all incoming calls appear to be forwarded to voicemail at 9.32 p.m. he calls Catherine Jarvis and his cell phone connects with a tower in Mira Loma which is south of Rancho Cucamonga north of Corona after 9.32 after that 9.32 p.m. contact his phone is off the grid until 7.30 the next morning February 5th during that 5.32 to 9.48 p.m. is when the Mitchley video was taken 7.47 p.m. a look into Joseph's QuickBooks records showed you're going to hear evidence about you're going to hear more evidence about that video in particular during that time period at 7.56 p.m. someone signed in from the McStay's home computer the one there at Joseph's desk signed in added a check to Charles Merritt all lowercase deleted the check and signed up memo was for Paul Mitchell all lowercase the check was for $4,000 at 8.28 p.m. Joseph's cell phone record shows a call to the defendant again during that time period when the defendant's cell phone is off the defendant's cell phone does not register a call during that time period could be explained by quickly trying to call someone and hanging up before the connection's made from the closest tower to you to the closest tower to them before that connection's made you're calling and hanging up on February 5th four checks are created not from the McStay's home computer computers any of them check 40 94 95 96 and 97 are all created two of them are to Metro Sheet Metal that company in Azusa for relatively small amounts two of them are to Charles Merritt all lowercase now what's interesting about these four checks on the 5th they were backdated to the 4th the last day the family was known to be alive the sequence of checks is before the checks that were found in Joseph's office out in the open on a chair that check was printed 4093 it's kind of hard to read I apologize the number was deleted it was edited it was to be printed it was printed 4095 it was backdated to February 4th 2010 one check 4097 for $6506 and one check 4098 for $2350 that check was deposited the $6500 one that was written on that date was not deposited or cash they were all created backdated and deleted on that date February 5th this is the day after the last known contact with the family it's a Friday from 3.54pm to 9.17pm the defendant's cell phone again is not connecting to any towers there's no activity on his cell phone and then after that 9.18pm I believe there's no more contact as well so that's Friday the 5th I'm going to jump forward to the 8th and then we're going to come back and it'll make sense when I do it I promise on February 8th that's the day the trooper was towed from the lot in San Ysidro from 7.26 to 1.31am at 7.26 the defendant has a cell phone connection to a tower in Rancho after that his cell phone is not receiving or sending any messages so it's either turned off in airplane mode or not connecting with any towers from 7.26am to 1.31pm that vehicle again that's on the date the vehicle was towed at 11 o'clock that night backing up to the interview with San Diego he was asked have you ever driven the vehicle that Isuzu trooper [00:54:37] Speaker ?: have you ever driven the vehicle [00:54:43] Speaker 2: have you ever been um yeah when the last the last time I was in it we went to canton went to we played ankle canton [00:55:07] Speaker 1: San Diego while they were with the defendant there took what's called a buckle swab it's a swab of the inside of his cheek for his DNA when the bodies were located San Diego I'm sorry San Marino processed the swab for DNA just kind of thumbnail sketch what DNA does everyone has a profile they look at various areas on the DNA strand and everybody has a value at those areas and across the population there's certain statistics for for instance I might be [00:56:06] Speaker ?: I might be [00:56:06] Speaker 1: a 1-2 at this location but half the population is a 1-2 at that location but every other location also has its own statistical value so they obtained a known sample that being Charles Merritt and they obtained a profile from the steering wheel of the Isuzu Trooper swaps taken taken by San Diego county by Dennis Williams they compare the values of the locations of the known sample with the values of the locations on the steering wheel from the swaps from the steering wheel they were able to obtain a mixture of individuals on the steering wheel the mixture when you look at the quantity or the amount of DNA was primarily Joseph because he was the driver that matched him there was a trace small contributor of Summer and a minor contributor of the defendant the possibility of finding that profile at random in the population is 1 in 850 million they didn't get any results from the driver's side panel they got some results the numbers are not 1 in 850 million but there is some suggestion on the gear shift and on the radio controls air conditioning controls on the panel of the trooper on February 8th again that's the day the trooper's found at 131 when the cell phone the defendant's cell phone comes back on the grid so to speak comes on at 131 he's near the 91 freeway in the Corona area and then at 141 there's a cell phone a tower contacted on the northbound 15 in the Corona and Norco area 151 he's even farther north and 154 to 631 he's accessing or sending a signal to towers near his residence [00:58:04] Speaker ?: on that date [00:58:09] Speaker 1: on that date February 8th Monday guess what QuickBooks is accessed at 2.15pm sorry at 2.20pm a check is added to Charles Merritt all lowercase that check's deleted there is a 107 minute phone to call to QuickBooks on Monday the 8th the caller identified himself as Joseph McStay the number he was calling from was the defendant's phone number there was some indication of cancelling a subscription getting a new version he tells San Diego investigators Joseph gave me his credit card number even though we're two different companies and I don't even do all of his fountains gave me his credit card number to get a new version of QuickBooks the check to Charles Merritt was created it was backdated to February 4th printed and deleted and it was deposited on February 9th 2010 the two checks to Metro sheet metal that were written on the 5th and backdated to the 4th those were held on until March by the bookkeeper because they didn't look right it wasn't like what she'd gotten from Joseph in the past that's just the transaction history on February 9th again someone calls QuickBooks claiming to be Joseph McStay but calling from the defendant's cell phone number customer service representative who took the call said that the customer was adamant that they needed all of the information in the QuickBooks account deleted in fact he knows they were adamant because in his customer service notes he wrote in all caps needs all of the information deleted so he told Mr. McStay calling from the defendant's cell phone I need to send you an email as the administrator with what you need to do the steps you need to take to do that he didn't hear me he sent another email he still didn't hear and he closed February 9th the defendant goes to Susan Blake's house it's Tuesday February 9th says hey I can't get a hold of your son Joe you know anything I don't know I'm gonna go down there and his cell phone goes down there and accesses towers in the Fallbrook area for about an hour and a half and then after that it accesses towers near the Paula Casino for about eight hours remember how I said early on that the plane the victim and all of that that came to light kind of in light of his interview with San Diego County if Joe says it doesn't get packed very soon [01:01:11] Speaker ?: and they get paid [01:01:14] Speaker 5: so that's not going to be fun Joseph doesn't get [01:01:19] Speaker ?: picked up [01:01:21] Speaker 5: that was on [01:01:23] Speaker 1: $500 at the San Manuel Casino in Highland the next day he takes out $300 at the San Manuel Casino in Highland two weeks later takes out $500 at the Commerce Casino the same day he takes out another $500 from near the Commerce Casino another $500 from the San Manuel Casino but he's talking about this impact that it's going to have on his life you know his wife she's worried too because Joseph was the primary source of iDesign's income [01:02:03] Speaker 2: he's [01:02:22] Speaker 5: we'll go back to February 6th February 6th was a Saturday and [01:02:40] Speaker 1: 1.30pm contacting towers remember earlier on I said over to the right here's the geographical location of those towers those were again analyzed by Kevin Bowles of the FBI and he can look at the location in the azimuth that is the direction cell towers go certain sectors there's a sector for a certain number of degrees that's what the cell phone contacts off of between 1046am and 1.30pm the defendant's cell phone is contacting towers in the in particular 11.30am to 11.52 and 1.30pm he's on a tower he's contacting a tower which is on top of this mountain here on the right of this photograph here's a photograph of that cell tower from the [01:03:44] Speaker 5: grave site [01:04:08] Speaker 1: two days after the family was murdered ladies and gentlemen we talked a little bit about in jury selection and Mr. Iams talked to you about unanswered questions there will be some in this case we can't tell whether or not someone helped the defendant either during the commission of crime or after certainly suggest two grown people need to be moved we can't answer all of the questions we can't answer the who who's ripping off his best [01:04:51] Speaker 5: friend and got caught [01:04:55] Speaker 1: and we can't tell you that the evidence is going to show in this case that the only person in this case that's associated with the McStays that had a connection to the high desert is the defendant everyone else in San Diego County Riverside County Orange County the only connection to the high desert in this case is that man right there we can tell you the how we can tell you the why and we can tell you the who at the end of this case we're going to give the closing argument we're going to ask you to find him guilty and to hold him accountable thank you