No Proof Merriman Killed Student, Defense Says

So determined to convict admitted white supremacist Justin Merriman of murder, Ventura County prosecutors have built their case around a liar who could be the real killer, his defense attorney argued Friday.

Willard Wiksell told jurors in his opening statement that there is no physical evidence--no body, no murder weapon--to prove Merriman slit the throat of 20-year-old college student Katrina Montgomery eight years ago.

Instead, he said, prosecutors are relying on the testimony of a young skinhead gang member, Larry Nicassio, who says he saw Merriman do it.

But Wiksell said Nicassio is a liar who may have wielded the knife himself, and one of a series of prosecution witnesses whose testimony should be disregarded because it was obtained through plea agreements or other favors.

“This is a case based solely on bought-and-paid-for testimony,” Wiksell told the jury. “The word was out, ladies and gentlemen, that if you dropped Justin Merriman’s name, you got a deal.”

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Merriman, 28, who was indicted two years ago on murder and rape charges for allegedly killing Montgomery at his mother’s Ventura condominium in November 1992.

Merriman is also accused of raping two other women in 1994 and 1995, and assaulting police officers during a SWAT team standoff in 1998. He further faces conspiracy charges for allegedly asking fellow white-power gang members to kill witnesses in his murder case.

Merriman’s trial began this week in Ventura County Superior Court. In contrast to Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Bamieh’s daylong opening remarks Thursday, Wiksell offered a 10-minute opening statement Friday.

He focused only on the murder and rape charges that could send his client to death row.

Wiksell told jurors many of the facts in the case will not be disputed by the defense, starting with Montgomery’s disappearance.

Prosecutors believe the Santa Monica College student, who grew up in Ventura, dropped by a friend’s party in Oxnard on Nov. 27, 1992, and was killed early the next morning. Her blood-stained truck was found abandoned near Little Tujunga Road in the Angeles National Forest, and she was never seen or heard from again.

Her body has never been found.

But Wiksell told jurors he does not intend to suggest that Montgomery is alive and living abroad somewhere. He said she must be dead because she never contacted her family or friends, with whom she had close relationships.

“She is, I believe, dead,” Wiksell said.

But he told jurors there is no reliable evidence to prove Merriman killed her--including the explosive statements of the alleged eyewitness, Nicassio.

For five years the investigation into Montgomery’s disappearance stalled because witnesses, namely skinhead gang members, refused to cooperate with police.

In late 1997, prosecutors convened an investigative grand jury. They suspected Merriman, Nicassio and fellow skinhead Ryan Bush of Castaic were involved because they were all at the party.

Merriman was a senior member of a Ventura skinhead gang. Nicassio and Bush, who are cousins, were members of a group of San Fernando Valley skinheads.

Bamieh told jurors in his opening statement that investigators decided to lean on Nicassio first, because he was the youngest, 16, at the time of the killing. They charged Nicassio with murder and he in turn agreed to tell prosecutors what happened if they would reduce the charge.

Nicassio told them he and Bush spent the night at Merriman’s condominium after the party. They were in the defendant’s bedroom when Montgomery came over a short while later to spend the night.

While he and Bush pretended to be asleep on the floor, Nicassio said, Merriman raped Montgomery. When she got up to go to the bathroom, Merriman stabbed her in the neck with a knife, beat her over the head with a wrench and slit her throat, Nicassio said, to prevent her from reporting the sexual assault.

He told authorities Merriman then forced the cousins to get rid of the body and murder weapons. Nicassio said they buried Montgomery in a rural area near Sylmar and threw the knife and wrench in a dumpster.

Wiksell, however, told the jury there is more to the story.

He said the evidence will show that Nicassio assaulted Montgomery at the party, holding her up to a wall and choking her, because he was upset that she was not attracted to him.

Wiksell never directly said to jurors that Nicassio killed Montgomery. But he said the story by this witness is suspect and raises doubts on whether Merriman killed her. Wiksell briefly touched on the other rape charges facing his client.

Prosecutors say Merriman raped at least two ex-girlfriends after Montgomery disappeared. But Wiksell told jurors the women never reported any assaults to police. He said the sex was consensual and suggested the alleged victims were sought out by investigators trying to build a murder case against Merriman.

“In the end, you must decide this case, and it is not a piece of cake,” he told the jurors. “It is a difficult case and it is a sad case. The question remains, is Mr. Merriman a fall guy for this, or is he responsible?”

Last year Merriman’s 53-year-old mother, Beverlee Sue, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to dissuade witnesses from testifying against her son. She is serving a 24-month sentence in state prison and has been ordered to avoid all contact with her son during his trial.

Testimony in the trial began Friday with police officers who responded to the 1998 standoff in Ventura. The trial is scheduled to resume Monday.