Detective Says Cleaner Was at Suspect’s Home

The day after Katrina Montgomery was reported missing in November 1992, an LAPD detective went to murder defendant Justin Merriman’s home and found a professional carpet cleaner leaving the Ventura condominium.

Retired Det. William Heim told a jury Friday that the cleaner told him he had been called to scrub a coffee stain from a white carpet. The man declined to say more.

When Heim approached homeowner Beverlee Sue Merriman, he said, she became agitated and refused to let him inside.

“She appeared nervous to me,” the detective said.

Heim, who formerly supervised the Los Angeles Police Department’s missing persons unit, was one of two detectives who testified Friday about the early investigation into Montgomery’s disappearance.

Montgomery, a 20-year-old Santa Monica College student, was last seen leaving a skinhead party in Oxnard about daybreak on Nov. 28, 1992. The next day, her blood-stained pickup truck was found abandoned in Angeles National Forest near Sylmar.

Ventura County prosecutors contend that Montgomery left the party and drove to Merriman’s home where, they say, the 28-year-old skinhead gang member raped her and slit her throat to prevent her from reporting a sexual assault to police.

But defense lawyers say another gang member, Larry Nicassio, may have wielded the knife. Merriman is charged with murder, rape, conspiracy and other counts and faces a possible death sentence if convicted.

On Friday, Heim told jurors that he launched a missing persons investigation on Nov. 29, 1992, at the home of Scott and Apryl Porcho, who threw the party.

When he arrived, Heim noticed blood on the kitchen floor. He said Scott Porcho told him there had been a fight over a card game. Heim said he asked Porcho who might know something about Montgomery’s disappearance.

“I said, ‘If something bad happened to Trina, who should I talk to?’ And he said, ‘I’d talk to Justin Merriman,’ ” Heim testified.

The case was referred to LAPD’s robbery/homicide division and assigned to Det. James Harper. Harper, who is now retired, told jurors Friday that Scott Porcho gave a different story on Dec. 1, 1992, telling detectives that the skinhead fight began over an attack on Montgomery in a hallway--not over a card game.

For the past three days, prosecutors and defense attorneys have wrestled over conflicting statements about the hallway incident. Porcho testified earlier this week that Nicassio put a steak knife to Montgomery’s throat and also choked her.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Bamieh attempted to show Porcho was lying about the knife, but Porcho maintained that he had told authorities about it earlier.

However, Harper told jurors Friday that Porcho never mentioned Nicassio using a knife during a March 1993 interview.

Harper also testified that he searched Merriman’s bedroom in December 1992. He said it looked “very clean” and recently vacuumed.

The Los Angeles Police Department never solved Montgomery’s disappearance. Indictments were handed down years later after investigators with the Ventura County district attorney’s office took over the case.

Harper and Heim both told jurors Friday that their investigation was hampered by witnesses who lied and withheld information.

In one instance, Harper said, he called carpet cleaner Judson Mashburn to inquire further about the stains in the Merriman condominium. “He was very reluctant to give out any information,” Harper said.

Harper told the jury he obtained Mashburn’s telephone number from Beverlee Sue Merriman on the morning of March 5, 1993, and interviewed Mashburn later the same day. Earlier this week, prosecutors presented evidence to show that Beverlee Sue Merriman wrote a check to Mashburn for $70 on March 5, 1993. Called to the witness stand last week, Mashburn could not explain the payment.

Testimony is scheduled to resume Tuesday in Ventura County Superior Court before Judge Vincent O’Neill.