Merriman Convicted of 1st-Degree Murder

A Ventura County jury Tuesday convicted a 28-year-old skinhead gang member for the 1992 murder of college student Katrina Montgomery with additional findings that may bring a death sentence.

Justin Merriman rocked in his chair and showed no emotion as guilty verdicts were read on the first-degree murder charge and a special finding that he killed the 20-year-old Montgomery after raping her.

Merriman was also convicted on 18 additional counts, including conspiracy, witness intimidation and the rapes of two other women.

Seated a few feet away, Katy Montgomery burst into tears as the verdicts against her daughter’s killer were read aloud before a filled-to-capacity courtroom.

It was a moment she and her husband, Mike, had prayed for, the couple said in a statement released to The Times.

“We will live with the pain of losing Trina for the rest of our lives,” the couple wrote. “But it helps to have this part of it finally settled.”

After sitting through four weeks of often-harrowing testimony, the jury of nine men and three women took just two days to sift through the multiple counts and find Merriman guilty of all of them, except one rape charge prosecutors conceded in closing arguments they hadn’t proved.

Montgomery disappeared on Nov. 28, 1992, after leaving a party in Oxnard. Her blood-stained pickup truck was found the same day abandoned in the Angeles National Forest near Sylmar, but she was never seen again and her body has never been found.

For years, the investigation went nowhere. Then a series of breaks led authorities to Merriman, who was indicted on murder charges in January 1999.

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During the trial before Superior Court Judge Vincent J. O’Neill Jr., prosecutors presented evidence to show that Merriman wanted a relationship with Katrina Montgomery, a Santa Monica College student who grew up in Ventura.

When she spurned his sexual advances, witnesses said, he raped her, stabbed her in the neck and beat her with a wrench to prevent her from reporting the sexual assault to police.

Two San Fernando Valley skinhead gang members, Larry Nicassio and Ryan Bush, testified they saw the attack while spending the night at Merriman’s home but were too scared to intervene.

Nicassio told jurors he stared out a window, but turned to see Merriman holding a knife to Montgomery’s throat, asking: “Where’s her jugular?”

In closing arguments last week, defense attorneys conceded that Merriman killed Montgomery, but insisted it was a rash, unintentional act. But Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Bamieh told jurors there was clear evidence of premeditation.

Merriman killed Montgomery because he feared she would “rat” on him, the prosecutor argued, suggesting the case went unsolved because Merriman used a network of white power gang members to protect him.

Outside the courtroom Tuesday, Bamieh praised jurors for finding Merriman guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances--a finding that makes the defendant eligible for the death penalty.

“Obviously they thought the evidence was as compelling as we did,” he said.

The trial now advances to a penalty phase in which the same jury will decide whether Merriman should face execution by lethal injection or life in prison without possibility of parole. Testimony is set to begin Feb. 27.

As a crowd of Montgomery’s relatives embraced and cried in the court hallway, defense attorney Willard Wiksell expressed disappointment with the verdict.

“The case against Merriman was very well-presented by the prosecution,” Wiksell said. “We felt there was reasonable doubt in the testimony of the two informants, Nicassio and Bush, but the jury saw it differently.”

Wiksell said Merriman, too, was disappointed with the jury’s decision, but would not elaborate on his client’s state of mind as he faces the penalty phase.

“The focus right now is simple,” Wiksell said. “We just want to keep him alive. We believe the appropriate penalty is for him to spend the rest of his life behind bars.”

Jurors got the case Thursday after closing arguments and deliberated all day Friday. The courthouse was closed Monday, and the jury continued deliberations Tuesday morning.

About 10 a.m., the panel indicated it had reached decisions on all counts. The reading of the verdicts was delayed until 1:30 p.m. so Montgomery’s parents, who live in Los Angeles, and other family members could attend.

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After they filed into the small, 56-seat courtroom, Merriman walked in wearing a crisp white dress shirt and khaki pants. He smiled at his younger sister, seated in the gallery with her husband, before taking his seat at the defense table.

After the verdicts were announced, Merriman shook hands with lawyer Philip Capritto as the courtroom was cleared. Katrina Montgomery’s father declined to comment on the verdict, citing the pending penalty phase, but released a brief written statement praising the Ventura County district attorney’s office and witnesses who finally came forward.

“For eight long years we have prayed for some kind of closure regarding the murder of our daughter,” the couple wrote. “That the truth should finally be known and the man responsible for her death should finally be held accountable is only right.”

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Correspondent Jenifer Ragland contributed to this story.

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Key Dates in Montgomery Murder Case

Nov. 28, 1992--Katrina Montgomery leaves a party in Oxnard about 5 a.m. Later the same day, her blue Toyota pickup truck is found abandoned in the Angeles National Forest with blood in the bed. The Los Angeles Police Department launches an investigation.

July 1997--The Ventura County district attorney’s office, which took over the case in 1995, begins to pursue it full time. A grand jury is convened in November to investigate.

Nov. 21, 1997--Authorities arrest San Fernando Valley gang members Ryan Bush and Larry Nicassio on suspicion of murder. Bush is later charged with a drug offense, and Nicassio is charged with murder in Montgomery’s death.

Jan. 31, 1998--Justin Merriman runs from deputies during a traffic stop on Ventura Avenue and barricades himself inside a nearby home. After a police standoff, he is arrested and charged with resisting arrest, vandalism and other counts.

March 30, 1998--Nicassio agrees to cooperate with investigators. He signs a plea agreement and leads them to a site near Sylmar where, he said, he and Bush had buried Montgomery’s body after Merriman killed her. Authorities are unable to locate her remains. Nicassio agrees to wear a wire to obtain statements from Merriman in jail.

December 1998--Prosecutors convene a second grand jury.

Jan. 6, 1999--Merriman is indicted on murder charges in Montgomery’s slaying. He is also indicted on rape charges for allegedly assaulting two women in the mid-1990s and a charge of evading arrest in the 1998 standoff. In May, he is indicted a second time for allegedly conspiring to intimidate witnesses.

Jan. 4, 2001--Opening statements launch Merriman’s trial in Ventura County Superior Court.

Feb. 13, 2001--Jurors find Merriman guilty of first-degree murder with additional findings that make a death sentence possible.