Objections to Cell Phone Forensics and Analysis in Court

Last Updated on Thursday, 4 February 2010 09:34 Written by kelly.solid Thursday, 4 February 2010 09:25

Most law enforcement have one objective in mind: catch the bad guys.  Unfortunately, part of the process is proving your case in court which is not as easy as it seems.  Defense attorneys will do whatever it takes to get their clients off, even if the evidence points otherwise.  One area that is becoming more and more of a controversy is the area of Cell Forensics and Cell Forensic Analysis.

Take a particular homicide case that is currently being tried in Lakeport, CA. The prosecution in this case has presented cell forensic and phone analysis vital in determining who communicated what, where and when.  Much of the cell phone analysis is based on cell phone forensics produced by the Northern California Computer Crimes Task Force (CCTF).

In the case, a detective at the CCTF provided testimony related to information retrieved from the (victim’s) cell phone as well as a cell phone associated with the (main suspect). The testimony provided related to call logs, contact lists and text messages sent and received between the phones.

“The defense voiced objections to taking information within messages allegedly sent between (the victim, the main suspect and a witness) on the grounds of hearsay as the CCTF detective testified that forensic capabilities do not allow for identification of who actually used a specific phone at any specific time.” Fortunately the objection was over ruled in this case.

What Kind of Forensic Investigation Can Bust the Morgan Harrington Case?

Last Updated on Saturday, 30 January 2010 06:26 Written by kelly.solid Saturday, 30 January 2010 06:26

The missing person’s case that captured the nation’s attention came to an abrupt end thisweek with the confirmation that Morgan Harrington’s body had been found on a farm near Charlotteville, Virginia.  How was Morgan killed and more importantly, who killed her?

The how part of the murder should be know fairly soon with an autopsy.  Hopefully, the Virginia State Police can garner enough DNA evidence to determine some physical evidence of who might have been involved.  It has been over 3 months since that fateful night, 17 october 2009, but DNA forensic experts know that you can determine a lot with very little. One such article I read indicated that, to the examiner’s advantage was the fact that Morgan’s body was perserved in snow for much of the time.  Heat causes faster decompostion, so hopefully the cold winter will play to the investigator’s favor.

Another area that the investigator’s should look into is finding the perps through cell phone analysis.  Cell phone analysis?  What is this guy on, you might ask?  Hear me out.  Per the police timeline/map,Morgan was last seen about 9:20PM walking away from the stadium (Metallica concert).  Obviously someone picked her up sometime after that and took her body approximately 10 miles away onto a farm where her body was found this week.  What if, the perp(s), any of the them, used or received a cell phone call around the time of Morgan’s disapperance at or near the stadium?  Then what if, that same perp or perps, made or recieved a phone call at or near the farm later that evening when Morgan’s body was dropped off?  We would have a way to identify through correlation analysis matching phone numbers from the appropriate cell towers.  Do a cell tower dump the night of 17 October around 9PM near that bridge and another cell tower dump where the body was found.  It is worth a try and possibly a case buster.