Digital evidence in the Palmer murder trial of Erick Almandinger included Facebook messages in which Almandinger calls himself smarter than the cops.
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5/25/2018
Erick Almandinger Trial..
PALMER — The teenagers accused of killing 16-year-old David Grunwald left a blatant social media trail leading up to the crime on Nov. 13, 2016 — and for days later.
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Evidence in the trial so far
depicts a group of loosely supervised teens with easy access to marijuana — Almandinger's father grew it, witnesses say — and a fascination with guns and the Crips gang.
Grunwald, a "good kid" with a steady girlfriend and ambitions to be a pilot, had been to Almandinger's at least twice before to smoke marijuana and play video games, friend David Evans testified last week.
On one visit, Almandinger showed Grunwald the gun that prosecutors say was later used to pistol-whip him before he was shot and killed.
The digital investigation started the day after Grunwald disappeared.
A Samsung Galaxy tablet seized at Almandinger's home yielded Facebook messages between Almandinger and Johnson from the night Grunwald died, Trooper Dustin Jorgensen testified Wednesday.
Johnson tells Almandinger "we're at the camper" at 6:22 p.m., according to messages read into the record by Jorgensen, an investigator with the troopers' technical crimes unit. Almandinger tells Johnson he doesn't want to go outside and tip off his father that the other teens are in the camper.
Grunwald got to Almandinger's at around 6:40 p.m., according to a timeline presented Wednesday.
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[Victim believed to be inside camper around 7 pm].
Around 8:10 that night, according to Facebook messages, Johnson asks Almandinger for his "toolie" — a Ruger .40-caliber pistol — and offers $80 to use it. Almandinger hedges and says they can talk in person later.
Johnson replies he can't talk in person and asks, "do you wanna be let in on something"? He tells him to swear not to tell anyone else.
"I gotta act fast like (right now) fast you feel me," Johnson wrote at
8:16 p.m.
They agree a minute later to talk via Snapchat, a social media platform that automatically deletes messages.
Almandinger later told investigators he brought the gun to Johnson in the camper. Prosecutors say that's the gun that was used to beat Grunwald.
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The teens communicated regularly via social media in the days after Grunwald was killed, Jorgensen testified. A few days later, Almandinger posted a missing poster but also searched the Etsy online shopping site for "unique Crip-related items."
Almandinger told Peterson the investigators "literally have nothing and think they can get me (to) say I did some s—" he didn't do, according to records pulled from Peterson's Facebook account. "F— with a 16 yo genius see what happens (he inserted a smiley emoji) when youre smarter than the (cops)."
The teens deleted numerous other messages, Jorgensen testified.
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