Mother of Murder Suspect Held on $2-Million Bail

The mother of a man accused of murder was taken into custody Monday after a bail hearing at which prosecutors portrayed her as a danger to the community and an associate of her son’s white supremacist gang.

Beverlee Sue Merriman, 51, looked stunned as a judge ordered her held on $2-million bail pending a January trial on conspiracy and perjury charges.

Merriman had been free on $120,000 bail. She pleaded not guilty in June to charges of conspiring with her 26-year-old son, Justin Merriman, to intimidate grand jury witnesses whose testimony led to his indictment on murder and related charges earlier this year.

But last week, prosecutors filed a motion to increase Merriman’s bail to $2 million--eight times the standard bail for murder cases--saying that the mother has continued to scheme with her son to threaten and harm witnesses.

“Mrs. Merriman is trying to help her son any way she can,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Bamieh argued in court Monday.

Justin Merriman was indicted in January on charges that he raped and murdered 20-year-old Katrina Montgomery after they left an Oxnard party thrown by his white supremacist friends in November 1992.

Montgomery, a Santa Monica College student, was never seen again. Years later, skinhead Lawrence Nicassio told the grand jury that he saw Justin Merriman fatally beat and stab Montgomery in a bedroom of Merriman’s Ventura home that night.

Prosecutors say that Nicassio and other witnesses who helped their case have since been targeted by Justin Merriman and his mother.