Joseph McStay

NBC 7’s Artie Ojeda is outside the courtroom where the judge handed down the death sentence.

Charles Merritt pleads for the judge to not sentence him to death, as he continues to deny he killed the McStay family.

Charles “Chase” Merritt, the man convicted of killing the McStay family, was sentenced to death and life in prison for the slayings.

After a lengthy, drawn out day in court, the man who was set to be sentenced for killing the McStay family won’t learn his fate until next week. NBC 7’s Artie Ojeda has more.

Charles “Chase” Merritt interrupted his attorney Friday during legal proceedings. His attorney was arguing motions before Merritt was set to be sentenced. The attorney stopped Merritt, saying, “You can’t.”

Sentencing pushed until Tuesday for the man convicted of killing the McStay family after they vanished from their San Diego County home in 2010.

A jury recommended the death penalty Monday for a man found guilty of the murders of a family of four whose bodies he buried in the Mojave desert.

A guilty verdict was handed down Monday in the trial of a Southern California man charged with killing a family of four and burying their bodies in the desert.

Jurors in San Bernardino heard emotional testimony from the mother of Joseph McStay in the McStay family murder trial family Tuesday.

Greed drove a Southern California man to kill his business partner’s family with a sledgehammer and bury their bodies in the desert, prosecutors said Monday.

McStay family disappearance stumped investigators for years.

For years, the disappearance of the McStay family from their San Diego County home puzzled investigators, with no signs of forced entry and the couple’s credit cards untouched.

Friends of the man accused of bludgeoning a young Southern California family to death are having a hard time believing man they know could commit such a brutal crime.