Merriman Kept List of Witnesses in Cell, Investigator Says

Worried that murder suspect Justin Merriman was working from behind bars to intimidate witnesses, police searched his jail cell two years ago and found a list of witness names hidden under a mattress, investigator Mark Volpei testified Thursday.

During the search, authorities also found names, addresses and phone numbers scrawled on the pages of a Bible and pages of grand jury transcripts that had been sealed by court order, Volpei said.

Investigators conducted the March 1999 search two months after Merriman, 28, was indicted on murder, rape and related charges in connection with the slaying of college student Katrina Montgomery.

A former Ventura resident, Montgomery, 20, disappeared Nov. 28, 1992, after leaving a skinhead gang party in Oxnard. Her bloodstained pickup truck was later found abandoned in the Angeles National Forest.

The investigation into her disappearance languished for years until the Ventura County district attorney’s office picked it up in 1997. Merriman was identified as a prime suspect and indicted two years later.

After the January 1999 indictment, Merriman allegedly wrote letters to fellow skinhead gang members identifying witnesses who cooperated with police. He was indicted in May 1999 on charges of conspiracy and witnesses intimidation.

Merriman’s trial began earlier this month in Ventura County Superior Court. Prosecutors, who are seeking the death penalty, have spent the past few days focusing on the alleged intimidation.

On Thursday, they admitted into evidence letters written by Merriman.

“This whole case is based on people making agreements with the devil D.A.,� Merriman wrote in a letter to his sister, Ember Wyman.

Merriman enclosed a second letter, to gang member Sal Sponza, which he asked Wyman to mail for him. Prosecutors contend Merriman did this to avoid detection by jail officials who were screening his mail.

In the letter to Sponza, which Volpei read aloud, Merriman identifies five people who wore recording devices to obtain statements from him. He gave a physical description of one, noting the man’s age, nickname and tattoos.

“They’re burying me,� Merriman wrote. “There are more wires in Ventura County than AT&T; and GTE combined.�

Prosecutors have suggested Merriman identified informants in hopes his gang “brothers� would target them for assaults. But three skinhead gang members called by prosecutors to the stand Thursday denied carrying out such a plan.

In other testimony Thursday, Volpei told jurors he found copies of sealed grand jury transcripts while searching the home of Beverlee Sue Merriman, the defendant’s mother. One of the volumes appeared to have been taken apart, Volpei said.

Beverlee Sue Merriman was indicted in June 1999 on a conspiracy charge for allegedly helping her son try to intimidate witnesses. She pleaded guilty during a trial last year and served less than a year in state prison.

During their investigation, authorities videotaped visits between Beverlee Sue and Justin Merriman, who has his mother’s name tattooed on the back of his neck. Jurors have viewed two of the five hourlong tapes so far.

Testimony before Judge Vincent J. O’Neill is scheduled to resume Monday.