The man accused of killing a family of four from Fallbrook, Calif. – including two young children – has chosen to represent himself in court, again, as legal proceedings stall once more on a murder trial six years in the making

Charles Merritt is accused of bludgeoning to death his business partner Joseph McStay, as well as McStay’s wife, Summer, and the couple’s sons, 4-year-old Gianni and 3-year-old Joseph Jr.

As prosecutors work to get Merritt to trial in the quadruple-murder, legal proceedings have repeatedly stalled for various reasons.

Last summer, Merritt’s trial was set for Aug. 10, 2015.

At the time, he was being represented by Southern California-based defense attorney Jimmy Mettias, who said he expected prosecutors to allege Merritt used a sledgehammer to kill the McStays after a business dispute with Joseph, and covered his tracks by painting over evidence at the family’s home and burying his victims in the desert.

Mettias said nothing on the sledgehammer could be traced to Merritt. The attorney also said Merritt had an alibi that would be revealed at trial.

Six months later, Merritt has now fired Mettias and, at a hearing on Tuesday, has elected to represent himself, according to officials with the Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino.

This isn’t the first time Merritt has opted to act as his own attorney.

In late January 2015, he requested to represent himself, claiming he had six to eight months to live due to congestive heart failure and could not afford legal representation.

Merritt’s next court appearance is a disposition hearing slated for Feb. 11 at the San Bernardino Justice Center courthouse. The purpose of that hearing is to determine if Merritt is prepared to proceed to trial.

The McStay family vanished from their home north of San Diego County almost six years ago to the day – Feb. 4, 2010. Their sudden disappearance captured international attention and baffled investigators who said there were no signs of a struggle inside the family’s home. Food was left on the kitchen counters and the family’s dogs were left unfed.

Four days later, the McStay family’s 1996 Isuzu Trooper was found in a parking lot near the U.S.-Mexico border in San Ysidro in south San Diego County.

From there, speculation unfolded that the family was in Mexico after the family’s computer records showed searches for travel to Mexico and investigators sifted through grainy surveillance video of what appeared to be a family of four crossing the border from San Diego into Mexico.

According to search warrants unsealed last summer, in the McStay family’s abandoned car, detectives found Merritt’s DNA on the steering wheel, shifter, radio and A/C control panel.

When detectives interviewed Merritt following the McStay family’s mysterious disappearance, investigators noticed a “fresh injury to his hand,” which he claimed was from cutting his hand on sheet metal.

The warrants also noted: “Merritt made several statements about Joseph in the past tense, including “Joseph was,” leading investigators to believe Merritt knew Joseph and the family were deceased.”

On Nov. 11, 2013 – nearly four years after the family’s disappearance – the skeletal remains of the McStay family were uncovered in shallow graves in a very remote desert location in Victorville, Calif., about 100 miles away from their home.

Joseph's body was found wrapped in a blanket, an extension cord wrapped around his neck.

The partial skull of one of the children was bleached white due to exposure to the elements, as the remains had been there for an undetermined amount of time. A sledgehammer was found in one of the graves, investigators said.

Search warrants noted the cause of death for the McStay family was blunt force trauma, and one of the murder weapons was likely the sledgehammer found at the gravesite in the Southern California desert.

In November 2014, Merritt was arrested in connection with the murders. He has pleaded not guilty in the slayings.

Search warrants state detectives obtained phone records for Merritt in order to trace where he was during the time of the McStay family’s disappearance.

“Merritt was in a position to access the cellular telephone tower northeast of the McStay family gravesite on Feb. 6, 2010 – two days after the family was last seen alive. Merritt made six phone calls in the area between 10:46 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. that day,” the documents said.

The warrants also stated it’s “probably” there was more than one suspect involved in the murders “since an entire family of four was murdered and transported to the desert.”

For a timeline of McStay family murder mystery, click here.

An Alpine mother of two was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday to face a child endangerment charge in connection with the death of her toddler whose broken bones went untreated, according to sheriff's investigators.

Lucas Orlando, died Jan. 13 of multiple skull fractures, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner.

His mother, Renee Fournier was arrested Jan. 26, accused of felony child endangerment, San Diego County Sheriff's Deputies said.

When deputies were called to the Alpine Oaks condominium complex on Arnold Way on Jan. 11, they were told the 19-month-old boy had been injured in a fall.

Deputies began CPR on the boy before paramedics arrived and rushed him to the hospital. He died two days later. The medical examiner later determined Lucas’ cause of death to be blunt force trauma. His death was ruled a homicide.

The little boy had also suffered a broken arm and leg, which were mending on their own, investigators said.

Fournier was booked Tuesday into Las Colinas Detention Facility in San Diego’s East County on $100,000 bail.

Her boyfriend, U.S. Navy corpsman Brett Brown, was arrested Jan. 14 in connection with the boy’s death and is being held at San Diego Central Jail without bail.

Brown, 29, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and assault on a child with force likely causing death.

Brown is a corpsman attached to the Naval Medical Center San Diego. His next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 29.

Many neighbors of the couple want justice for Lucas and want this case to serve as a reminder to pay attention to potential signs of abuse.

“It's important that it gets a lot of attention so that people are aware of it happening and people can make sure it stops,” Jenny Ramsey said.

The Clinton campaign announced Wednesday that more than 170 prominent African American women leaders have endorsed the former secretary of state, NBC News reported.

The list includes actress Uzo Aduba, North Carolina Congresswoman Alma Adams, and BET CEO Debra Lee.

The women, who will serve as surrogates for Clinton, will rally other African American voters South Carolina and in March primary states.

They will host neighborhood meetings, debate watch parties and will also walk door-to-door to businesses carrying Clinton’s message about closing the gap for women, paid family leave, raising the minimum wage and protecting women’s reproductive rights.  

Cal Fire crews rescued a woman who fell about 900 feet with her horse down an embankment on the Pacific Crest Trail Wednesday.

The fall was reported at 4:10 p.m. at Kwaaymii Point in Pine Valley.

After being lifted to safety, the woman was taken by ambulance to Sharp Memorial Hospital for treatment. She had moderate injuries, according to Cal Fire, and she seemed awake and alert with a neck brace on when she was transported into the hospital.

The horse is staying at the scene under the care of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). Its condition is not known.

Federal prosecutors said a Kansas man pleaded guilty to plotting to blow up a car bomb at a military base for ISIS, NBC News reported.

John Booker, 21, tried to blow up what he thought was a car bomb outside Fort Riley on April 10. His accomplices were FBI informants and the “bomb” was made of non-explosive materials, according to prosecutors.

Booker attracted the FBI’s attention after saying on Facebook in March of 2014 that he wanted to commit violent jihad, and he later told investigators he planned on committing an insider attack, according to a criminal complaint.

Booker faces up to 30 years in prison under the plea agreement.  

The cab driver who was kidnapped and forced to drive three escaped Orange County inmates all over California said Wednesday he feels lucky to be alive.

Long Ma was working as a sort of freelance cab driver Jan. 22 when he received a call asking him to do a pickup at a landmark Little Saigon restaurant nearly four miles from the Santa Ana jail.

The three escaped inmates, Hossein Nayeri, Jonathan Tieu and Bac Duong, took Ma hostage, forcing him to drive them around.

“Until the day I was released, I always think that 100 percent I would die,” Ma, 74, said through translator, Dzung Do, a reporter with Nguoi Viet newspaper.

Looking back, Ma feared he would either be killed by his captors or by police.

“I was afraid that the police would come and that they would kill me because they thought I was an accomplice,” he said.

Ma said he didn't understand everything the trio said or did until they all landed in a Rosemead motel.

“They turned on the TV and they showed me ‘That's us, that’s us.’ They just escaped from the prison,” he recalled. “They were not afraid at all.”

His Honda Civic still had the sheriff's evidence tags attached Wednesday.

During the road trip to San Jose there was a fight. Ma wasn't sure why until he and Bac Duong started heading south to return to Little Saigon.

“On the way back here Bac Duong told me that ‘the reason that we fight is because Nayeri wanted to kill me but I stopped him.’ Bac Duong stopped him,” he said.

He said Jonathan Tieu always held the gun, but only threatened him once when he watched him change the license plates on the stolen white van.

He knows now they found him through a classified ad in the Vietnamese newspaper.

He showed us how they held him captive in various motel rooms, stretched out and blocking the exit.

“And they sleep on one chair and the other chair they put two feet at door. How can I escape?”

Friday morning, he said, Duong forced him to go into a car repair shop and find the owner. Once he felt safe, the taxi driver and the surrendering inmate parted ways.

“Only after the moment that I put my car key in my car and drive for a while I realized I'm still alive. Before that I never thought I would be alive.”

Ma said at one point Duong asked if he could sleep at his home. The answer was a resounding "no."

A caller who made a bomb threat to the Wisconsin sheriff's office at the center of the popular Netflix series “Making a Murderer” mentioned "getting justice for Steven."

The Manitowoc Police Department confirmed that the county’s dispatch center received a bomb threat around 6:40 p.m.

"There are bombs inside the sheriff's office already and that there was a vehicle with explosive devices in it, in the parking lot,” the caller said, according to police.

The caller also discussed "getting Justice for Steven” during the conversation, according to police.

Bomb sniffing K-9 units went over the office and the parking lot and all locations have been cleared, the department said.

No devices have been found, police said. The investigation into the calls is ongoing.

The Netflix documentary "Making a Murderer" is set in Manitowoc County. It tells the story of Steven Avery, a man who stayed in prison for 18 years for a rape he didn't commit, but was later convicted of murdering 25-year-old photographer Teresa Halbach.

The series suggests the possibility that Manitowoc County sheriff's deputies planted evidence in the case.

 Ahead of a Supreme Court ruling on immigration, California activists and officials are unveiling a new, centralized website with information and resources for undocumented immigrants. 

The website was created in part by Ready California, a statewide effort working to ensure as many eligible immigrants benefit from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA).

In advance of a Supreme Court hearing on President Obama’s executive action on immigration, involving both DACA and DAPA, local advocates and County officials rallied to unveil the website for San Diegan immigrants.

Members of the Alliance of San Diego, comprised of 30 different organizations dedicated to the Ready Now San Diego movement, said they want San Diegans to be prepared for whatever may happen and be aware of their resources.

The website, which users can translate into many languages, will include information about immigration assistance and programs currently available to them.

Daniel Alfaro, an immigrant integration manager, believes the Supreme Court’s ruling will be favorable, which he says explains the early push to get people the information on everything from health care to financial aid.

In San Diego County alone, there are 115,000 immigrants who are eligible for most of these programs, said Alfaro.

“We're here to help them with providing them with legal services, connecting them to the right resources, and making sure they take advantage of the programs available to them," said Alfaro. 

Itzel Guillen, 21, a junior at San Diego State University and attendee at the rally, came to San Diego as a 4-year-old with her mom and aunt who entered the country illegally.

"I dont think I noticed my undocumented status until I was in high school when the rest of my friends were able to get their driver’s license, they were able to travel," said Guillen.

Like tens of thousands of kids who grew up in San Diego in her same situation, President Obama's DACA program helped Itzel get financial aid, get her a license, and get a job.

“My life completely changed after that,” she said.

Visit the site by clicking here. 

After being heavily damaged by a fire, a popular restaurant along San Diego’s Embarcadero is back in the mix, and one of the first orders of business is giving back to the firefighters who saved the eatery.

On Wednesday, as a heartfelt “thank you” to first responders, the staff at the Top of the Market restaurant – located at 750 N. Harbor Dr. – presented the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFD) with a check for $5,000.

Over the past few months, the eatery has spearheaded fundraising efforts for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Foundation in hopes of raising money to donate to the fire department, specifically to purchase life-saving devices for firefighters known as the Personal Escape System (PES). The equipment enables firefighters to quickly deploy out of a multi-story building amid a firefighting mission.

The PES gives firefighters the ability to exit a burning building in less than 30 seconds, should they become trapped. The equipment is essential in today’s fire environment, where homes burn faster than ever. Currently, the SDFD’s escape system takes four minutes. The purchase of PES devices will allow for safer firefighting.

SDFD Chief Brian Fennessy and many of the firefighters that helped battle the blaze at Top of the Market were at Wednesday’s donation ceremony. They proudly accepted the check and met with restaurant staffers who are grateful the business was saved by fire crews.

"We are grateful to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department,” said Dwight Colton, the restaurant company's Vice President of Operations. "Given what we experienced, it is our pleasure to support a cause for our first responders and give back."

The fierce flames from the May 2015 fire also damaged the lower-level Fish Market sister restaurant, but Top of the Market took the brunt of the fire and water destruction. The eateries sustained more than $2 million worth of damages.

Following the blaze, both restaurants temporarily shut down for extensive repairs and renovations.

The Fish Market reopened in August 2015, and, after a seven-month-long closure, Top of the Market reopened on Dec. 17, 2015 with new, updated features.

The eatery is nestled along the San Diego Bay, near the USS Midway Museum, and is known for its scenic views.

San Diego Fire-Rescue's arson team is probing a fire that burned out the cab of a pickup truck in Normal Heights Wednesday evening.

This is the second vehicle fire in one week in the neighborhood, investigators say.

The latest fire was reported in a black Ford pickup parked in the 3300 block of Monroe Avenue. One crew was able to put out the fire quickly Wednesday. 

The first scorched vehicle was discovered down the street at Felton Street and Monroe.

No injuries have been reported.

 A prominent activist in the Black Lives Matter movement announced that he would be running for mayor of Baltimore. 

DeRay Mckesson filed to run as a Democrat before Wednesday's 9 p.m. deadline, NBC affiliate WBAL-TV reported. His status in the decentralized movement grew following the killings in Ferguson, Missouri and elsewhere. 

Mckesson, 30, made an announcement on Twitter and Medium.com, where he acknowledged that he is not a traditional candidate.

"The traditional pathway to politics, and the traditional politicians who follow these well-worn paths, will not lead us to the transformational change our city needs," McKesson said.

The National Academy of Medicine has deemed using sperm and egg cells from three different people as a viable option for would-be parents with a high risk of rare, devastating genetic diseases and want their offspring to avoid developing these problems. 

The Food and Drug Administration should carefully regulate such experiments, the panel said in a report. Along with other suggestions, they recommend that at first only male embryos be made until it's clear that dangerous mutations won't be passed on to future generations. 

"This will be an amazing breakthrough, benefiting patients who otherwise could not have healthy, genetically related children," said Dr. Owen Davis, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

Dozens of witnessed attested to dangerous conditions that Native Americans face in the healthcare system during a Senate hearing on Wednesday.

The U.S. has an agreement called the Indian Health Service dating back to 1787 that requires the federal government to provide American Indians with free health care on reservations.

But the service only has about half of the money it needs, and poor tribes in some of the most remote areas have underfunded facilities and substandard care, critics say.

"What we've found is simply horrifying and unacceptable. In my view, the information provided to this committee and witness first hand can be summed up in one word: malpractice," Wyoming Republican Senator John Barrasso, who chairs the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

Kent could be the first town in Connecticut to go beyond school resource officers and active shooter drills when it comes to school security.

The Board of Selectmen is going to present a plan that would allow guns in the classroom.

“Basically we’re talking about arming teachers or administrators,” Selectman Jeff Parkin said.

Parkin is pushing an Ohio based program called Faster Saves Lives. It arms schools with a plan for what to do before police arrive. The program would give teachers training and access to a trauma kit. It would also allow volunteers, who would remain anonymous, to carry weapons at school.

“It’s actually pretty simple,” Parkin said. “If you have the ability to stop an event and save lives even after the event began with the trauma training why would not do it?”

Parkin says it could have a big impact on small towns like Kent, who has a resident trooper, but police are not always close. He says it might not prevent future tragedies, but it could help minimize the damage.

“In my view if this program had been adopted in Newtown, it would have been a different outcome, still a bad outcome, but a different outcome,” Parkin said.

For parents, it is a sensitive subject filled with controversy and concern.

“It is absolutely not the answer,” Dana Benton said. “I think it’s going in the wrong direction and it’s disheartening that they are even considering it.”

“I don’t want my child’s teacher to have a gun and I don’t know a lot of teachers who would want to have guns,” Joel Baglia said.

The Kent Board of Selectmen voted 2 to 1 in favor of presenting the plan to the Board of Education, who will ultimately decide. They chose not to comment on the program until it is presented at their meeting in March.

Kent Center School is a K-8 school with roughly 235 students and 25 faculty.

Strength isn't always about physical force. 

Pantene is continuing its "Strong is Beautiful" ad campaign with a series of videos featuring NFL players figuring out what the playbook is on styling their daughters' hair. 

In one, Pittsburgh Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams wants to know, "Why do they make these barrettes so complicated for guys?" as he tries to create twisted pigtails for his daughter, Rhiya.

While serving as a platform to promote Pantene products, the campaign also claims to help women and girls "shine by helping to build their confidence," the company wrote in a press release.

A Wallingford, Connecticut man is accused of pretending to have terminal brain cancer, then accepting more than $20,000 donated at benefits held in his honor.

Wallingford police pulled Tyler William Tomer, 29, of Wallingford, over in May for a suspected DUI and he told police his "body was full of cancer," according to Wallingford Police Lt. Cheryl Bradley.

Sometime after the incident, a family member told police that Tomer didn't have cancer, according to investigators, who said Tomer apparently shaved his head and took weight loss pills to mislead friends.

People who believed Tomer was sick came together to help him and fundraisers were held in Connecticut, as well as Kansas, In all, Tomer collected at least $22,680.80, police said.

Sheehan High School, where Tomer was a standout athlete, raised $6,000, a GoFundMe account raised $6,835 and a charity golf tournament at Lyman Orchard raised more than $10,000, according to Wallingford police.

When police looked through bank statements and medical records, they determined Tomer was never diagnosed with cancer, Bradley said.

"We did a lot of search warrants for bank accounts, medical records, and it came down to the fact that he was never diagnosed with cancer. And in the end, he admitted to that," Bradley said. "It's horrific. It affects a lot of people — people who are fighting cancer."

When police asked why he did it, Tomer allegedly told them he owed money and the situation had gotten out of control, Wallingford police said.

Tomer was charged with first-degree larceny and first-degree larceny by defrauding a public community.

He was being held on Wednesday night on a $250,000 court-set bond.

It's not clear if he has an attorney.

A transient was charged Wednesday with capital murder for the bludgeoning deaths of an 89-year-old man and his 74-year-old wife at their multimillion-dollar Southern California home the day after Christmas in 2014.

Luke Mathew Fabela, 23, is charged with two counts of murder and one count each of second-degree robbery and first-degree residential burglary in the deaths of Armie "Troy" Isom and his wife, Shirley.

Shirley Isom died of blunt force injuries and her husband died later in the day. He had been beaten and stabbed, authorities said.

A groundskeeper found their bodies Dec. 26 at the couple's mansion above the Pomona Valley east of Los Angeles. The isolated multimillion-dollar home abuts open land in an unincorporated area near La Verne.

Authorities said DNA linked Fabela to to the killings last year while he was serving a jail term in San Bernardino for auto theft. A sample of Fabela's DNA had been placed in a state database after a previous felony arrest.

By the time the comparison results came back, Fabela was already in custody in the San Bernardino County case, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Homicide Lt. David Coleman.

Before his arrest, Fabela had been living as a transient, staying with different friends and relatives around the San Gabriel Valley.

The murder charges against Fabela include the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders during the commission of a robbery — the only item taken was Shirley Isom's cellphone, according to the prosecution.

In February, deputies asked drivers in Pomona whether they recognized the man depicted in a composite sketch of the killer. The sketch was believed to show a hooded man who was seen on surveillance video at an intersection near the home on the night of the slayings.

Fabela is the man described by those witnesses and depicted in the composite, detectives believe.

Some witnesses identified Fabela in a jail lineup, Coleman said.

Information on an attorney for Fabela was not immediately available.

Hillary Clinton had a difficult time Wednesday night explaining why she accepted more than $600,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs in one year, NBC News reported. 

"Well, I don't know. That's what they offered," she said when asked about the fees by CNN host Anderson Cooper in a forum televised by the network with less than a week away from New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary.

Bernie Sanders has used Clinton's lucrative turn on the paid speaking circuit to attack her.

"I wasn't committed to running. I didn't know whether I would or not," she added when asked why she took the money knowing it would look bad if she ran. She said she did not regret taking the money, noting that other former secretaries of states have given paid speeches and saying that no one can influence her.

A federal grand jury has indicted several people involved in the anti-government protest at an Oregon wildlife sanctuary, where a handful of holdouts continued to occupy the site overnight Wednesday, NBC News reported.

The armed occupation, which began Jan. 2 at the Malheur National Wildlife Center, lost its momentum last week after its leaders, brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy, were arrested along with 9 others during a traffic stop. Another occupier, Robert LaVoy Finicum, was fatally shot by authorities in the same incident.

Federal prosecutor Geoff Barrow told the AP on Wednesday that the indictment involves the people arrested so far "and others," perhaps a reference to the four people who have stayed put at the federal refuge — despite Ammon Bundy's calls for them to leave.