Trial for Ben Lomond woman set for October

A jury trial to determine whether former Ben Lomond resident Michael McClish killed Joanna “Asha” Veil and her unborn child is scheduled to begin in mid-October.
The trial will commence Oct. 17, more than five years after Veil’s body was found by a woman walking her dog along Love Creek Road in Ben Lomond in September 2006.
Veil, who had failed to report to work for several days, was 6½ months pregnant with a daughter, posthumously named Anina by Veil’s husband, Richard Veil.
In May 2008, McClish, already in prison for another crime, was arrested as the primary suspect in the double homicide. Delays in naming a suspect were attributed by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office to the extensive nature of the investigation and delays in the DNA testing process by the state crime lab.
“(This case) has more police reports than any case I’ve ever seen,” said prosecutor Jeff Rosell, an assistant district attorney in Santa Cruz, while explaining part of pre-trial motion to the judge.
McClish is serving an 18-year prison sentence for an unrelated rape conviction and appeared in a Santa Cruz court with his attorney, Thomas Wallraff, on Tuesday, Aug. 23, to go over several pre-trial motions.
Clean-shaven except for a mustache, McClish appeared to be fit and in good health. Members of his family sat in court behind McClish and listened to the proceedings.
The motions included dialogue about whether testimony by McClish’s ex-wife, Melissa McClish, during the 2007 rape trial would be allowed as evidence. The court also examined the statements of three women, with whom Joanna Veil had spoken on separate occasions, for relevancy to Veil’s state of mind shortly before she was killed. The judge will issue decisions on the motions before the trial begins.
Judge Paul Burdick presided over Tuesday’s hearing and is expected to hear the case. Rosell was the prosecutor in McClish’s rape conviction. Wallraff is defending McClish for the first time . He will be tried for the murder of both Veil and her unborn daughter.