Post Verdict -Working Out The Unresolved Questions

[gcharlie]

On surebuttal, the forensic expert testified that there was a log in attempt on Travis's computer at 4:54. He did not say whether it was successful or not, which makes me think that is was not. Which would mean that CMJA tried to log into his laptop.

I have read Flores' report, but did not think about the computer activity. With the trial testimony, I reconciled the two different times as one being activity on the computer and then a failed log in attempt.

Do people remember her reaction in court when she saw the prosecution motion to included Brown, as computer expert, as a surebuttal witness? She was not pleased at all. I remember hoping that he would bring up some really good stuff, but it never did happen.

I've tried to research factory settings on cameras, but come up with nothing. I'm not sure if you have to change the time for daylight savings vs. standard time or not; if this is done automatically, it could result in a different time because Arizona does not change its clocks? Then the camera would have adjusted the time forward and been an hour ahead of actual AZ time? Did I use the proper logic?

 

[ElleElle]

Known fact plus a bit of assumption:
Per Flores report, on June 4, Zach came home 3 PM - 4 PM then goes back to girlfriend's house to clean and returns 9 PM. I'm assuming he spent June 3 night - June 4 morning at girlfriend's house for house sitting.
Per Flores report, on June 4, Enrique left home some time in the morning and returns home around 6- 6: 30PM.
Actual time stamps on evidence pictures: Nude pictures start at 1:42 PM. Shower pictures start at 5:22 PM.
Last activities on laptop: 3:34 PM per Martinez direct to Manendez, 4:54 PM per Wilmott cross, 4:19 PM per Flores report.

<respectfully snipped>

Because of phone activity around noon with Hughes, the camera time cannot be off more than 5 hours ahead.

My conclusion : Many different scenarios can be gleaned if we assume Travis's camera time was off.

The camera could have been set to UTC/GMT, which is default for many electronic devices.

Coordinated Universal Time - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Technically, the photo taking could of happened at 10am-ish on Jun4.

 

[ElleElle]

Thank you for putting that together! When I was questioning JA's testimony that they slept until around 1:00 before having sex and taking pics/video and mentioned CH's text to Travis at 12:13, it was mentioned that we didn't know if Travis read or responded to that text, since this is all Flores said in his report about it:

"Travis' cellular phone was located in the downstairs office of the home. The last outgoing or incoming call was made at 1213 hours on 6-4-08. There were other incoming calls or text messages into the phone after that, but none were ever answered."

But down in the section where Flores interviewed CH he says:

"Chris stated he last had contact with Travis on Wednesday 6-4-08 at around noon. This was via phone text message. Travis had a very important telephone conference call on Wednesday 6-4-08 at 1900 hours, which he had missed. Travis was supposed to be hosting the conference call, but no one was able to get ahold of him. This information matched what we had found on Travis' phone on the day of the search warrant. The last outgoing text by Travis was to Chris Hughes and that was the last known contact he had with anyone."

So he did reply to the text, which throws a(nother) kink into her story that they both slept until 1:00. She didn't know about that text he sent CH, nor did she have any idea about the floor cleaning except that furniture was off the tile, I really don't think she was in the house as early as she has stated/testified but I can't get there from here going by the time stamps. lol

Perhaps Jodi sent the text because Travis was already dead as the camera time settings were reset back to factory default to extract the image files?

 

[ElleElle]

P.S. Someone mentioned above Travis making 'a peace sign' in one of the nudie pics, he's throwing the bottle of KY towards the camera/photographer, that's just the shape the camera caught his hand in after releasing the bottle, not an intentional 'sign'.

It is certainly a matter of perspective. Personally, I believe he is showing "the deuce".

 

[ElleElle]

Melendez read from his report on the laptop, last usage was 15:34:49 (3:34:49 p.m.) on 6-04-08.

Sounds about a time Jodi would to leave the house with an alibi. She had to make it appear unsuspicious of Travis' whereabouts.

 

[Truth Detector]

On surebuttal, the forensic expert testified that there was a log in attempt on Travis's computer at 4:54. He did not say whether it was successful or not, which makes me think that is was not. Which would mean that CMJA tried to log into his laptop.

I have read Flores' report, but did not think about the computer activity. With the trial testimony, I reconciled the two different times as one being activity on the computer and then a failed log in attempt.

Do people remember her reaction in court when she saw the prosecution motion to included Brown, as computer expert, as a surebuttal witness? She was not pleased at all. I remember hoping that he would bring up some really good stuff, but it never did happen.

I've tried to research factory settings on cameras, but come up with nothing. I'm not sure if you have to change the time for daylight savings vs. standard time or not; if this is done automatically, it could result in a different time because Arizona does not change its clocks? Then the camera would have adjusted the time forward and been an hour ahead of actual AZ time? Did I use the proper logic?

We 'sleuthed' this in great detail during the trial.

IIRC, TA's Sony Cyber-shot® was a DSC-H7/9 series model (Black).

Many owners don't give it a second thought, but most digital devices, including cameras, contain internal rechargeable batteries which maintain date/time settings even when the other removable external batteries which the user sees, and which power the camera's 'macro-functions' (picture taking, playback, flash, focus, zoom, etc.) are depleted.

There was nothing mysterious about the date/time setting process in TA's camera. It did not self-adjust for DST -- many digital cameras of that era didn't and many still don't -- but as Arizona doesn't observe same, that's irrelevant.

Moreover, even if AZ did observe DST, the most crucial digital image data contained in the camera's internal memory and external Memory Stick [PRO] Duo (IIRC) were written to those media on June 4, 2008 -- well after any DST change would have taken place almost 90 days earlier, at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, March 9, 2008. But I digress.

You can reference the DSC-H7/9 owner manual, which is still available on Sony's support page for this model.

Bottom line: As neither the prosecutor nor the defense team ever challenged the accuracy of the date/time stamps on these digital images, as far as the court is concerned they may as well be considered 'stipulated' factual by default.

 

[ElleElle]

On surebuttal, the forensic expert testified that there was a log in attempt on Travis's computer at 4:54. He did not say whether it was successful or not, which makes me think that is was not. Which would mean that CMJA tried to log into his laptop.

I have read Flores' report, but did not think about the computer activity. With the trial testimony, I reconciled the two different times as one being activity on the computer and then a failed log in attempt.

Do people remember her reaction in court when she saw the prosecution motion to included Brown, as computer expert, as a surebuttal witness? She was not pleased at all. I remember hoping that he would bring up some really good stuff, but it never did happen.

I've tried to research factory settings on cameras, but come up with nothing. I'm not sure if you have to change the time for daylight savings vs. standard time or not; if this is done automatically, it could result in a different time because Arizona does not change its clocks? Then the camera would have adjusted the time forward and been an hour ahead of actual AZ time? Did I use the proper logic?

BBM ~ My work consists of hardware analysis and speaking from experience, I believe that camera was reset back to UTC time; 7 hours behind.

So, what that means is 1:42PM (the timestamp on extracted photos), is actually 5:42AM. This would make it that the sex pics started less than 90 minutes after Jodi's arrival of 4:15AM.

 

[Truth Detector]

BBM ~ My work consists of hardware analysis and speaking from experience, I believe that camera was reset back to UTC time; 7 hours behind.

So, what that means is 1:42PM (the timestamp on extracted photos), is actually 5:42AM. This would make it that the sex pics started less than 90 minutes after Jodi's arrival of 4:15AM.

Nah, I'm still shaving with this:

 

[ElleElle]

Nah, I'm still shaving with this:

Either or is a possibly, but rightly so, the State did not find it necessary to investigate too much to prove pre-med.

The timeline of her being there all day shows that her and Travis were in some non-threatening state to fit her self-defence defence.

I always wonder why she waited so long to kill since she had it all planned out.

 

[wasnt_me]

Okay, he connected the camera by usb to 'write blocker(?)' and couldn't see or access any pics on the internal memory but it turned on and powered up, the shutter button was loose, nothing else was off of it ('it was like it is right now'). He could see where the memory stick was and the stick had a cover on it, memory stick item number #215, connected card to card viewer, also a write blocker is connected through usb to computer, card would not come up, he went through procedures, checked it on other computers, could only put card directly into his machine to see the pics on it.

First found pics that were not deleted (active files), also after making image of the card could see the deleted pics. 5 step process to delete pics, (1) press playback button, (2) press menu button to get delete option, (3) select delete from menu, (4) select how you want to delete (one image, multiple images, etc), (5) delete the ones chosen. Doesn't remember what the not-deleted images were of.

Camera imprints date and time on the pic file itself. The blurry pics were thumbnails, the larger pics may have been overwritten and only the thumbnail was left in the unallocated space of memory card. Date and times on pics came from NCase report. Pics being viewed next, beginning with 1:42:53 p.m., female. I won't detail the rest.

You haven't said anything here to indicate that the camera was no operational. From the sound of what you wrote, the card was damaged. I'm discussing the functionality of the camera, what date and time the camera said it was when he turned it on and what time stamp it would put on a picture if Menedez had taken a test picture. I said in my post that I didn't believe ANY of those things were addressed in court, but it seems like ABC forensics to test all that to make sure the dates on the pictures were what the camera actually believed in accordance to the real and actual time of day.

 

[wasnt_me]

Yes, as I recall Zach said he left to return the rental car about 8:30 a.m. and he had parked it in the driveway.

About the camera, it was my understanding that the camera wouldn't power up or allow Melendez to get the pics off of it until he removed the stick and inserted it directly into his computer, he went into some detail in testimony about it, I'll have to rewatch to see what he says about the camera itself, but he couldn't get pics from it/the stick in his usual way.

Didn't JA state she saw Travis watching the Daft video when she first got there, before even Naps noticed her and came to the door [wagging his tail] and then Travis let her in [both so happy to see her] (oh her details drive me wild!)? How could she see, from the patio door, inside his office? It's down the hall and surrounded by four walls and a door. Even the window is up too high for her to look inside, even if he'd had the shades open? I'm with pocketaccent on this one, she accessed his laptop after murdering him, back-keying to his last net visits and having to sign into his e-mail (according to Flores last use of the laptop was email).

Going to get a hot cup of coffee and rewatch Melendez' testimony, be back with details. lol

Zach doesn't not say what house he left when he went to get the rental car, but he does say he was house-sitting for his girlfriend's parents. That's a strong enough circumstantial piece of evidence to indicate he woke up at their house, not his own house. I don't understand any other purpose in house-sitting than to be at the house. And he said he had to clean up before they got home, another indicator he'd been sleeping/living there.

 

[Truth Detector]

Either or is a possibly, but rightly so, the State did not find it necessary to investigate too much to prove pre-med.

The timeline of her being there all day shows that her and Travis were in some non-threatening state to fit her self-defence defence.

I always wonder why she waited so long to kill since she had it all planned out.

Yeah, I'm with you on the pre-meditation, but I've been skeptical about the potential of a last-ditch "take me to Cancun and marry me or else" ploy, as even she couldn't have been stupid enough to think that would ever amount to anything, meaning that she'd still have to go to Plans K and G eventually.

 

[wasnt_me]

P.S. Someone mentioned above Travis making 'a peace sign' in one of the nudie pics, he's throwing the bottle of KY towards the camera/photographer, that's just the shape the camera caught his hand in after releasing the bottle, not an intentional 'sign'.

How do you know this?

 

[Truth Detector]

You haven't said anything here to indicate that the camera was no operational. From the sound of what you wrote, the card was damaged. I'm discussing the functionality of the camera, what date and time the camera said it was when he turned it on and what time stamp it would put on a picture if Menedez had taken a test picture. I said in my post that I didn't believe ANY of those things were addressed in court, but it seems like ABC forensics to test all that to make sure the dates on the pictures were what the camera actually believed in accordance to the real and actual time of day.

Your comment wasn't directed to me, so I'm probably 'butting in' on a public forum here.

Pictures on a digital camera are digital image files.

Files have creation dates, modification dates, etc.

All those dates are written on the card along with the digital image files (pictures).

Even if the camera never powered on after the rinse cycle, the deleted and un-deleted digital images and their metadata remained on and were restored from that pesky card.

Photo metadata source here

 

[wasnt_me]

Either or is a possibly, but rightly so, the State did not find it necessary to investigate too much to prove pre-med.

The timeline of her being there all day shows that her and Travis were in some non-threatening state to fit her self-defence defence.

I always wonder why she waited so long to kill since she had it all planned out.

I have said many times why she waited so long. Enrique was in the house when she got there. I don't even know if she knew about Enrique since he'd only been a roommate for 2 or 3 weeks. She acts like she knew about him, noting that Enrique shared a wall with Travis' bedroom, but how could Jodi have EVER been in that house with Enrique while he was living there? Just that one night. June 4th.

Zach was the only other roommate up until Enrique moved in during May. She knew Zach was with his girlfriend all the time. But she knew NOTHING about Enrique's habits.

I suppose Travis could have told her that Enrique had moved in, but listen to the way she says in the interrogation that Travis and Enrique share a wall so that knowing if the roommate was there would indicate how quiet they had to be.

I guess it would take sleuthing to know when Travis had a full house of roommates prior to Enrique even moving in. Zach got there in January, another roommate had "abruptly left" in November or December. Did Travis ever have more than one roommate at a time until his financial issues and decision to rent to Enrique? I believe there is also a bedroom downstairs, too, according to Zach in the police report.

In any event, she would have made an excuse to Ryan if she'd intentionally planned to be 24 hours late. She didn't intend that. Enrique was an issue. Not Zach because Zach was house-sitting.

I also think it would highly jeopardize her plan for her to fall asleep ANYWHERE in a car in Mesa, where someone else--even a cop--could spot and question her. I agree, too, with Lambchop that she wasn't wasting the gas she had to get her out of Mesa undetected on air conditioning a car.

 

[wasnt_me]

Your comment wasn't directed to me, so I'm probably 'butting in' on a public forum here.

Pictures on a digital camera are digital image files.

Files have creation dates, modification dates, etc.

All those dates are written on the card along with the digital image files (pictures).

Even if the camera never powered on after the rinse cycle, the deleted and un-deleted digital images and their metadata remained on and were restored from that pesky card.

Photo metadata source here

My OP was about people saying the Camera didn't have the right time. Your post earlier about how the camera stored time goes along with what I was saying.

People were speculating that the camera was set to the wrong time; therefore, the timestamps on the pictures are not correct. I'm saying that police could have tested the camera when they turned it on to see what time the camera said as compared to the "actual" time of day.

The memory card cannot tell time. The internal clock in the camera tells time. So if Melendez powered it on at 3pm, but the camera told him that it was "2pm," then he would know that the pictures were most likely taken an hour later than the files state.

They did the same due diligence with the text messages. The text messages came to them on GMT. They adjusted the times on them according to true AZ time. Because they did that, I can *advertiser censored*-u-me they did it with the camera, too.

I'm not sure what in my post led you to think I didn't know about digital files, but I'm not talking about digital files. I'm talking about the camera knowing what time to put on the files.

 

[geevee]

It is certainly a matter of perspective. Personally, I believe he is showing "the deuce".

Look closely, you'll see the KY bottle where the '06' in the date and 'unallocated' are (it's slightly blurry because it's in motion), then look at his eyes (following the bottle) and his hand, he's flipping the bottle towards the camera. Really.

P.S. I cut the center out just in case it was tmi.

 

[wasnt_me]

Interesting observation, but he appears to be looking at the camera man to me. It might actually look like something is in his hand. But that picture says to me:

"Travis....smile...."

And he looks over and puts his fingers in the air.

This reminds me though. Didn't Melendez say that when pictures were getting deleted, they sat somewhere on the memory stick and then other deleted pictures push them into unallocated? And as they keep getting deleted, newly deleted pictures overwrite the unallocated?

I was thinking about that, and if I have it right, 21 pictures went into deleted pictures from the shower--And possibly more because some pictures they just couldn't make out--correct?

That means that there were potentially dozens of sex pictures that had been in unallocated and overwritten by the deleted shower pictures. Isn't that correct?

 

[geevee]

You haven't said anything here to indicate that the camera was no operational. From the sound of what you wrote, the card was damaged. I'm discussing the functionality of the camera, what date and time the camera said it was when he turned it on and what time stamp it would put on a picture if Menedez had taken a test picture. I said in my post that I didn't believe ANY of those things were addressed in court, but it seems like ABC forensics to test all that to make sure the dates on the pictures were what the camera actually believed in accordance to the real and actual time of day.

I took down the testimony as it was given, and yes, the camera was in good enough condition to power up but nothing was stated as to if tests were done to find out if it was operational (ie could take pics with it) or if the time/date stamps were correct. JM tried to elicit whether the camera or the NCase program was responsible for the time date stamps (JW did also, asking about the 'red writing' on the pics and who put it there), Melendez didn't go into detail, only saying they were generated from the NCase program (which wasn't the answer either were trying to get but he apparently wasn't understanding the question from either attny).

 

[geevee]

How do you know this?

By looking at the picture? :blushing: