Murder on Montana Ave.

Timothy Marynov, Sasha's best friend from Fairfax High School, remembers how a mutual friend got heavily into drugs and needed a couple of thousand dollars to get out of trouble. Merman lent him the money, no questions asked.

"The guy never gave it back to him and Sasha just said, 'Whatever. It's not worth the aggravation, you know?' He was kind of like that."

Daniel Becerril

Sandra Becerril

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More About

• Sofia Merman
• Sasha Merman
• Daniel Becerril
• New York Crime
• Murder and Homicide

But when Merman told Marynov about the $250,000 loan he handed Becerril in December 2006, Marynov was dumbfounded. "I was, like, 'Dude, what the hell did you do that for?' I think part of it was just that he was a nice guy. He never really had money and he came into all this money when his uncle died. I think in a way this guy kind of sold it, like, 'Help me out, I really need this — and I'll make it worth your while.' "

Things went fine for a while. But by April 2007, about the time that Merman met Lara Elliott at a house party, Becerril's monthly payments to Merman on the $250,000 were taking longer.

"Every time, it was delayed — and then it became even worse because it was big delays," Elliott remembers. Becerril stopped returning Merman's phone calls.

Unknown to Merman, documents obtained by the Weekly show, his attention was being consumed by an alleged scheme against Sandra S. (the Weekly is not identifying her because she is not connected to the murder case).

Sandra S.'s house in Covina was a modest single-story with a well-kept lawn. A Realtor might have extolled its virtues — chef's kitchen, ample yard, close to excellent schools — if the home in which Sandra S. lived were for sale. It wasn't. Yet in 2009, the stunned and horrified homeowner was informed that the property was no longer hers and that its new owner, a man she'd never heard of, had defaulted on the mortgage. She was being evicted.

According to the L.A. prosecutor, Sandra S. had innocently approached AP Financial Group about getting a loan modification. Instead, Becerril's firm chose Sandra S. as a victim, stealing her house in a con that left her, literally, out in the cold.

According to the DA and records obtained by the Weekly, on April 18, 2007, employees of AP Financial forged the signatures of both Sandra S. and her husband, and notarized further fake documents, signing her house over to Becerril's wife, "Sandra Raya," who also goes by Sandra Raya Becerril. Records from that day show Sandra Raya "purchased" the house from Sandra S. for $442,000.

That alleged con resulted in 12 counts against Becerril's wife, his sister Rebekah Becerril and former associate Guajardo.

At the same time, the other fiscal fraud was unfolding on Montana Avenue, with Merman as the target, prosecutors say. By June 2007, the $300,000 was due to Merman from Becerril. According to Elliott, then Merman's girlfriend, when Becerril failed to pay the promised $300,000 and ducked Merman's calls, Merman was so sick about possibly losing the condo that he couldn't work on his art.

Was Daniel Becerril relying on the cash he was allegedly draining from the home of Sandra S. to pay off the increasingly anxious Merman? In August, two months after Becerril failed to pay Merman the $300,000 — and just as the housing bubble began to go bad for thousands in Southern California — Sandra S.'s house was flipped by Sandra Raya Becerril and sold to a third party for $442,000, property records show.

The money from the sale of Sandra S.'s home wound up in AP Financial accounts, according to prosecutors. The housing bubble burst not long after that. The house went for a paltry $158,000 the next time it sold, in 2009.

Merman, unaware of the Becerrils' alleged scheme against Sandra S., continued to give the benefit of the doubt to his pal. Around this time, Elliott and Merman broke up and she moved out of the Montana Avenue condo.

By then, Becerril had tapped everything of Merman's he could. Police say he had quietly diverted to himself an additional $300,000 in investments Merman made through AP Financial. He had Merman's mother's maiden name, his Social Security number, numbers to all of his accounts, his life insurance policy information and financial access to the condo, which had been transferred into the LLC's name.

Only one person knows for sure why Sasha Merman had to die. The DA's theory is that Becerril killed Merman so that he would never detect — or go to the authorities about — the additional $300,000 Becerril stole from Merman while dodging his calls about the $250,000 loan he never repaid.

What is known is that Becerril was scheduled to meet Merman at his condo on the afternoon of March 18, 2008. Merman's mother says Becerril admits to her that he was at the property that day but claims he met Merman outside in one of his cars. (He owns matching black and white Cadillac Escalades, as well as a silver Mercedes-Benz.)

Authorities say Merman's hands were slashed with defensive wounds from fighting his killer. The one-sided battle was marked by an overturned tree and a broken planter found near Merman's feet, and a broken vase on the entertainment center.