Merrill Has Nicest Day in Five Years, Bar None : Freedom: Former O.C. Marine celebrates acquittal in murder case that gives long incarceration ‘happy ending.’

One day after being acquitted of a double killing during a robbery, Thomas R. Merrill returned to the shopping center Saturday where his freedom had come to an end nearly five years ago.

Merrill parked in the same spot he used that November, 1990, evening when he had come to South Coast Plaza for some chocolate-chip cookies, and the symbolism of his choice was not lost on him or his family in the car.

This time, he was not taken away in handcuffs by police, their guns drawn, lights flashing. This time, he was free to stroll hand in hand with his mother, buy some jogging shoes and catch up on some overdue laughs with a family he fondly describes as a “Jerry Lewis convention.”

“You’ve really got the giggles today,” Sara Merrill told her son.

“I’m happy,” he replied simply.

By day’s end, the former Marine corporal was sitting by a hotel pool for a party that included a visit from one of the robbery victims, William D. King, who had testified that only one man was involved in the crime, and that man wasn’t Thomas Merrill.

“I was very excited as we drove over,” said King, who traveled from Yuma, Ariz., with his family for the get-together. “I think I was putting myself in Tom’s shoes, how happy you have to be . . . to finally be out and about.”

Added Merrill: “It’s like a happy ending. How many criminal cases have you heard about where the only person unhappy in the end is the district attorney?”

Merrill’s acquittal Friday closed a long and extraordinary legal battle, including three trials, stemming from the killing of two people during a robbery at Newport Coin Exchange.

Authorities alleged that Merrill, the prep school-educated stepson of an Episcopalian minister, and an accomplice had staged the robbery and killing at the coin shop in March, 1989. King, the shop owner, was shot four times, including once in the head. His wife, Renee King, and close friend, Clyde Oatts, were killed.

The other defendant, Eric J. Wick, was later convicted of murder, robbery and other felony charges and is serving a prison term of 37 years to life. Wick, an FBI agent’s son who was Merrill’s bunkmate at the Tustin Marine Corps Helicopter Air Station, testified during the two latest trials that Merrill fired the shots.

Merrill was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1991, then was awarded a second trial after defense lawyers argued a prosecutor had illegally withheld information pointing to his innocence. That retrial ended with a hung jury in May, giving way to a third trial that ended Friday.

Jurors said the mostly circumstantial evidence against Merrill was too weak. For many on the jury it wasn’t even an issue of reasonable doubt.

“I think we, for the most part, thought he was innocent,” said the jury foreman, who asked to remain unidentified.

Merrill, 31, maintained his innocence from the start. Keeping hope was harder, he said. “The only way I could deal with it was to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”

Sara Merrill, a native of Wales who now lives in Baltimore, worked unflaggingly to free her son through the years, enlisting the support of everyone from a top Episcopalian priest to a member of the British Parliament. One of the first things Merrill did after waking Saturday was grant a phone interview to the BBC, which has covered his case extensively.

In one of his more serious moments Saturday, Merrill said he’s determined not to become consumed by bitterness or hate, although he’s lost faith in the U.S. justice system.

“I don’t do anger well,” he said, talking of the inspiration he drew from reading the accounts of Vietnam War prisoners and concentration camp survivors. “It just isn’t me. That doesn’t mean I won’t forget. It just means I can’t let it run my life.”

Merrill said everything has been something of a blur since he first heard “not guilty” Friday from the court clerk reading the jury’s verdict. Six hours later he was walking out of jail a free man, and headed to a Santa Ana hotel for a quiet celebration with his mother, and uncle and cousin who are visiting from Wales.

At times, walking in and out of the bustling shops Saturday morning with his family, Merrill just shook his head and said, “Whew.” At lunch at a patio cafe, savoring a salad and a cup of cream of tomato soup, the words he found aptly summed up the last 24 hours: “This is just so amazing.”

“I used to walk around for days without focusing on anything,” he said, one of many experiences from his incarceration he would share with his family throughout the day.

Merrill’s first stop at the mall Saturday was a bookstore, where he bought a Scrabble dictionary (something to help him beat Mom at the game) and a couple of books about chess, a game he said “kept my mind alive” behind bars.

Sara Merrill said she thinks her son’s ability to “escape into books” helped keep him sane during his incarceration.

He later bought some jogging shoes, socks and running clothes so he can start running again and lose the stress pounds he gained in jail. A concoction he ate nearly every night after court didn’t help much either, he admitted. He called the recipe “spread,” a brew of hot water, popcorn, Ramen noodles, corn nuts, pork rinds, peanuts and sometimes, for an extra zip, jerky.

“You gotta love it,” he said.

“No wonder you got fat,” cousin Heather Hughes quipped.

Nicknamed “Major Tom” by other inmates, Merrill spent several months at Folsom Prison near Sacramento before his conviction was overturned. There, he worked as a church clerk, leading hymns and arranging scriptural readings for other inmates. At another prison near the Mexican border, he worked in a library and taught literacy, a project he’d like to continue. The rest of his time was spent at Orange County Jail.

For the most part, Merrill said, he avoided trouble with other inmates and kept to himself. But he said he missed companionship the most, spending hours alone in cold, concrete holding cells during the months he was in and out of the courtroom. Back in jail he longed for peace and quiet, for the ability to “just to be able to think again.”

“We’ve all been so bitter,” said Peter Read, Merrill’s uncle. “But he was always so strong. It was incredible.”

Short of traveling back to Baltimore with his mother and being reunited with his step-father, Merrill said he’s not sure what he’s going to do with his future.

Sara Merrill, meanwhile, is considering filing civil suits. And Read, once he and Hughes return to Wales, plans on writing a book about his nephew’s case.

“We’ll just take it one day at a time, the way we’ve been doing,” Sara Merrill said. “The biggest hump is over. I’m just so happy Tom is going to have a life.”