Witness Says Merriman Told of Killing

Six years ago, murder defendant Justin Merriman trapped a teenager in a bathroom and forced her to watch him inject heroin in his arm, she said.

When she complained, the woman testified Thursday, he filled a syringe with blood and squirted it in her face, ordered her to shut her mouth and made a statement that haunts her still.

“He just told me to shut up or he would slit my throat just like he slit Trina’s,” the woman testified.

Merriman, 28, is accused of raping and cutting the throat of 20-year-old college student Katrina Montgomery in November 1992. Authorities say he wanted to prevent her from reporting the sexual assault to police, and used fellow skinhead gang members to cover up the crime.

Merriman is charged with murder, rape, conspiracy and related counts in connection with Montgomery’s slaying.

Prosecutors, who are seeking the death penalty, say Merriman sexually assaulted at least three other women in the years after the killing. He faces seven additional criminal counts for those alleged incidents.

Earlier this week, one of the women testified that in early 1995 Merriman trapped her in a bedroom after they used drugs together and forced her to have sex with him.

The woman who testified Thursday told a similar story.

Sitting before a packed audience in a stuffy courtroom darkened by a power outage, the woman told jurors that in 1994 she was “an out-of-control little girl” who used drugs and hung out with skinhead gang members.

One night, she testified, she encountered Merriman at a party near Ventura Avenue and he asked her to go for a car ride. She agreed, she said, and drove to the defendant’s home in east Ventura.

The woman told jurors that she was attracted to Merriman. They went to his bedroom and used methamphetamine. She said they began kissing; then his demeanor changed.

“He just started getting really weird,” she testified, telling jurors that Merriman grabbed her hand and forced her to touch him intimately. She told the jury that the assault went on for more than a day. She was 19.

“Were you scared?” Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Bamieh asked her.

“Yeah,” she responded, crying. “I didn’t want to do it . . . or be there.”

The woman never reported the assault to police, she said, telling jurors she feared retaliation from Merriman’s gang. In fact, she said, she continued to see Merriman.

About a week after the alleged sexual assault, the woman got a “white power” insignia, designed by Merriman, tattooed on her rear end. Afterward, Merriman smacked her on the butt to “set the ink,” she said, and she yelled at him.

Merriman grabbed her and ordered her into a bathroom at a friend’s house, where he forced her to watch him inject drugs with a needle and syringe, she said. It was during that incident, she said, that Merriman made the remark about Montgomery.

Years later, the woman became aware of the district attorney’s investigation into Montgomery’s slaying and agreed to help authorities by wearing a recording device in sting operations designed to elicit admissions from the defendant.

“You cooperated a great deal in this case,” Bamieh said Thursday, asking the woman why she agreed to assist in the investigation--a move that later resulted in her being targeted by skinhead gang members.

“Because I hate Justin,” she said through clenched teeth. “I hate him for what he did to me--and because I left that room and Katrina never did.”

On cross-examination, defense attorney Phil Capritto challenged the woman’s story, suggesting that she was a scorned lover and heavy drug user whose motives and credibility are questionable.

Capritto pressed her at points, asking repeatedly about the extent of her drug use at the time of the alleged assaults, and suggesting that prosecutors persuaded her to accuse Merriman to bolster their murder case.

“Isn’t it true that you met with Mr. Volpei and he told you you were a rape victim?” Capritto said, referring to lead investigator Mark Volpei.

“No,” the woman replied, nodding toward Merriman. “What he did to me was wrong.”

Thursday’s testimony in the case concluded early due to the power outage, which dimmed the lights and cut off the air-conditioning and court microphones.

The outage--the second this week--was tied to the state’s ongoing energy crisis and a county agreement with Southern California Edison to voluntarily cut power during peak hours in exchange for reduced rates.