Defendant’s Mother Sentenced in Conspiracy
VENTURA — Despite her lack of a criminal record, Beverlee Sue Merriman was sentenced Monday to two years in state prison for conspiring with her white-supremacist son, Justin, to intimidate witnesses in his pending murder case.
The 52-year-old Merriman’s jaw dropped as Ventura County Superior Court Judge James P. Cloninger rejected a plea for probation and ordered prison time.
The stiffer sentence was warranted, Cloninger said, given the defendant’s lack of remorse and dishonest statements to probation officials about her culpability.
Her son, Justin Merriman, 27, is facing murder charges in connection with the 1992 slaying of 20-year-old Santa Monica College student Katrina Montgomery. Authorities say he raped, stabbed and bludgeoned her after they attended a skinhead gang party in Oxnard.
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