Man kills 75-year-old woman in break-in, then fatally shoots 2 others, CA officials say
A man accused of killing a 75-year-old woman during a break-in and then later fatally shooting two others is facing multiple life sentences, California prosecutors said.
Michael Todd Merryman is scheduled to be sentenced in March after pleading guilty to the killings, the Shasta County District Attorney’s Office said in a Feb. 25 post on Facebook.
He’ll be ordered to serve life without parole, plus 126 years to life, prosecutors said.
McClatchy News couldn’t immediately reach his attorney Feb. 28 for comment.
Merryman is accused of shooting Pamela Castleberry in the head in April 2024 after she returned to her Lakehead home to find that he’d broken in, according to prosecutors.
“In an attempt to cover up the murder, Merryman cleaned up the blood and put (Castleberry’s) body into her SUV,” prosecutors said. The SUV and her body were later found “on a remote property” in another community, prosecutors said.
Merryman wasn’t aware of that when he recruited Cynthia Duran and Louis Sanchez — who were strangers to him — “to help him retrieve (Castleberry’s) SUV from the property” in early May, according to prosecutors.
When “Merryman realized the SUV and body were gone,” he shot and killed 41-year-old Duran and 48-year-old Sanchez, prosecutors said. They’d locked themselves in Duran’s truck, but he fired through the window, according to prosecutors.
He’s accused of then setting their bodies on fire and taking off with Duran’s dog.
“A short time later, Merryman crashed the truck, abandoned the dog near the road, and wandered into the woods,” according to prosecutors, who said the dog was rescued.
Merryman was found and arrested later that month, prosecutors said.
Lakehead is about a 190-mile drive north from Sacramento.
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