Suspect in Slaying Pleads Not Guilty

A Ventura man charged in the 1992 slaying of college student Katrina Montgomery pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of rape and murder.

Justin Merriman, 26, is not expected to stand trial until later this year.

At the arraignment, a new defense attorney was appointed after the Ventura County public defender’s office declared a conflict of interest.

Attorney Willard P. Wiksell, who works with Ventura-based Conflict Defense Associates, will take over the case.

Merriman was indicted Jan. 6 on charges that he killed Montgomery, a 20-year-old former Ventura High School student.

In addition, he faces seven counts of rape for allegedly assaulting two other women in 1994 and 1995.

He is also charged with numerous counts stemming from a standoff with a police SWAT team last year.

Merriman is the second man to be charged in the homicide.

Larry Robert Nicassio, 22, was charged with murder late last year.

A waitress and student at Santa Monica College, Montgomery disappeared on Nov. 28, 1992, after stopping by an Oxnard party on her way to visit a friend in Ventura.

Her blood-stained truck was later found in the Angeles National Forest in northern Los Angeles County.

The case remains under investigation by the Ventura County district attorney’s office.