FL - FSU Law Professor Dan Markel Murdered by Hitmen *4 Guilty* #23

[amicuscurie]

I don't live there, but had a look on the map. If they were in Coral Springs, they would have had to have gone South past his house then went North to get to Orlando. Be interesting to know where they were staying.

If I recall correctly, at Charlie’s trial the state showed a text which was sent from Donna to Charlie around 8pm or so saying “outside your house,” and cell tower records have Donna arriving in Orlando around 1:30 am. The text to me is problematic to Donna’s defense for two interrelated reasons.

First, the text itself seems to me to indicate Donna stopped outside Charlie’s house, because it says “outside your house”. To counter this, at Charlie’s trial the defense claimed the text was sent from the Turnpike, and that the car did not stop.

This creates a second problem, because if the car was “passing by” FLL on the Turnpike at the time the text was sent, it would not take until 1:30 to arrive in Orlando, as cell tower records shown at trial indicate it did.

To solve this problem, it seems like the defense is claiming that SunPass records which no longer exist would show that the car got on the Turnpike at a time more consistent with Donna arriving in Orlando when cell tower records show she did. But this, to me seems to be inconsistent with the fact that the text they claim was sent FROM the Turnpike would have been sent much earlier than any such SunPass entry record, presumably.

So, in my opinion, I fail to see how there could have ever been any SunPass records which could have helped the defense overcome the two problems presented by the text.

Note: If Donna left from CS, North of FLL, she would be going backwards if the car was “passing by” FLL when the text was sent. In that case it seems to me that SunPass records might necessarily show the car exiting the Turnpike and getting back on at some point to go North. If that wasn’t for the purpose of stopping in FLL, then why?

Possibly, Donna could have avoided this by hypothetically taking I-95 from CS to go south. I-95 is not a toll road and would not create a SunPass record of that trip South. The car could then, hypothetically, have entered the Turnpike at FLL to go back North at a later time more consistent with the car’s arrival in Orlando per the cell tower records. The defense may think that a SunPass record of only this later entry would be helpful. But, the same problems I’ve listed above, with respect to the time of the text being earlier than the Turnpike entry, would still exist, in my opinion.