2nd Witness Says He Saw Merriman Kill Woman

Breaking years of silence, former skinhead Ryan Bush told jurors Monday he saw Justin Merriman rape, stab and bludgeon college student Katrina Montgomery to death in November 1992.

Merriman raped Montgomery in a bedroom of his Ventura home and stabbed her in the neck after she attempted to leave, Bush said.

“Katrina was begging for help,” Bush testified through tears. “Justin got a pipe wrench out of a dresser. He told her to lay down. He put some covers down and he struck her on the head.”

Bush’s statements in Ventura County Superior Court corroborated the testimony of his younger cousin, Larry Nicassio, who recently told jurors he saw Merriman rape and kill Montgomery after they attended a party together in Oxnard.

Merriman, 28, is facing murder and related charges in connection with Montgomery’s slaying, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Defense attorneys contend that there is no physical evidence--no body, murder weapon or fingerprints--to link Merriman to the killing. They told jurors in opening statements this month that Nicassio, 24, and Bush, 27, may be lying to protect themselves from prosecution.

The cousins--who were both members of a San Fernando Valley skinhead gang--were arrested in late 1997 on suspicion of murdering Montgomery, 20. Within months, Nicassio agreed to cooperate with prosecutors to obtain evidence against Merriman. Bush refused to talk.

At the time, Bush followed the skinhead line that viewed those who cooperated with authorities as “rats,” he said, adding that he was also scared of Merriman and ashamed of his own cowardice.

But in 1999, about a year after Bush was sent to state prison on drug and assault charges, he agreed to tell investigators what he knew about Montgomery’s disappearance, and they assured him he would not face criminal charges for what he revealed during the interview.

Prosecutors, who are expected to wrap up their case today, called Bush as one of their final witnesses. According to his testimony Monday, the events surrounding Montgomery’s death unfolded this way:

After the Oxnard party broke up, Nicassio and Bush were invited to spend the night at Merriman’s home in Ventura. The cousins, ages 16 and 19, respectively, were lying on the floor in sleeping bags when Montgomery arrived just before dawn.

She changed clothes and got into bed with Merriman, who demanded sex and slapped her when she refused. He then raped her.

As she dressed to leave, Merriman stabbed her in the neck, then grabbed a wrench and beat her while the two cousins watched. Bush and Nicassio both told jurors they were too scared to intervene.

Afterward, Merriman threatened the cousins and ordered them to help him dispose of the body. Bush said they complied.

“I just had the impression that if we had tried to leave, he would have gotten crazy with us too,” he testified.

They carried Montgomery’s body, wrapped in blankets, from the Merriman house to her pickup truck parked outside. Bush said they drove to Sylmar, picked up a second truck and headed to a rural area in the San Fernando Valley known as Sunset Farms.

There, he said, they placed Montgomery in a drainpipe and covered her with brush. Bush admitted wiping down her truck with gasoline and ditching it in the Angeles National Forest.

The next night, he said, he went back to Sunset Farms and buried her.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Willard Wiksell tried to show that Bush was lying in certain areas of his testimony. Bush told jurors on direct examination he didn’t carry a knife in 1992.

“I don’t believe in knives,” he said.

But under Wiksell’s questioning, Bush acknowledged that he often carried a roofing blade, a razor-like knife, to work with him while employed at a roofing company.

Bush also admitted that he got a swastika tattooed on his cheek a few weeks after Montgomery’s death, but had it removed prior to 1997. Wiksell has questioned the timing of the tattoo, suggesting Bush obtained it to show off his criminal handiwork after the killing.

Testimony in the case is scheduled to resume today.