Santa Maria Sun / News

Dystiny Myers defendant to flip

BY MATT FOUNTAIN

The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office filed documents that indicate at least one defendant plans to testify for the prosecution in the high-profile kidnapping and murder case of slain Santa Maria 15-year-old Dystiny Myers.

Time to testify: Jason Adam Greenwell—one of the five people charged with kidnapping and murdering 15-year-old Dystiny Myers—plans to testify for the prosecution, according to a court document filed by the SLO District Attorney’s Office. FILE PHOTO

Jason Adam Greenwell, 21; Frank Jacob York, 19; and Rhonda Maye Wisto, 47, of Nipomo; Ty Michael Hill, 28, of Santa Maria; and Cody Lane Miller, 22, of Fresno, have been charged in Myers’ death. They have all pleaded not guilty.

In a court document filed on July 16, Chief Deputy District Attorney Tim Covello argues the case should be heard by three juries in one unified trial.

In the brief, Covello said defendant Greenwell confessed to his participation in the alleged crimes and has agreed to plead guilty and testify against his co-defendants. He will also be available for cross-examination by the defense, the document reads.

According to the filing, the DA’s Office is seeking one jury to come to a verdict on Hill—the sole defendant facing the death penalty—another jury for York, and one jury to hear the cases against Wisto and Miller.

Miller allegedly also confessed to his role in the slaying, telling investigators that the other male defendants turned on him with a baseball bat and shovel after Myers was buried, the document reads.

Miller also allegedly revealed to investigators how he came to the Central Coast from Fresno to learn the drug trade and at one point was forcibly sodomized at knifepoint by Hill.

Prosecutors have alleged that the defendants were part of a methamphetamine ring led by Wisto.

The court documents are just one side of the story, and the Sun has been unable to obtain any responses by the defense.

A gag order has been placed on the case, and the only public information available is what has been submitted in court filings.

The defendants are due back in court Sept. 10.