Dystiny Myers murder trial begins

Almost two and a half years after one of the most gruesome murders inSan Luis Obispo County, two people are now in court to answer for the crime. 15-year-old Dystiny Myers was beaten, tied up and burned to death.

Witnesses testified about the horrifying last hours in the life of a 15-year-old girl.

The prosecution said Dystiny Myers was a troubled young girl. Wisto and York are accused of killing her along, with several other charges. Three others have already pleaded guilty to the crime.

Prosecutors described Dystiny as a runaway and spoke of her tough times on the street. On the night she was killed, Dystiny wound up at the Nipomo home of Rhonda Wisto, her son Jacob York and three other men.

When it was all over, her body had been dumped on the side of Park Hill Road in Santa Margarita. She’d been beaten, tied up and then set on fire.

Local fire crews responded to the brush fire. One of the firefighters was approached by a man asking for help, claiming he was also attacked as part of the crime. “He was talking to us the whole time but eventually he started to make sense and that’s when he had told us that someone, or his friends, had murdered a little girl,” said firefighter Ernesto Landeros.

Prosecutors later learned that that man was part of the crime, but was beaten after Dystiny was killed. When deputies questioned him, he named Rhonda Wisto as one of the people responsible for the killing. “After I asked if she was involved, he stated, “she’s an (expletive), crazy (expletive).” And then I asked, is she part of this? And he answered yes,” said the arresting officer.

Defense attorneys told the jury it was not the mother and son who were responsible for the girl’s death, it was the others at the home that night who are responsible.