Facts section excerpted from ORDER ON STATE'S MOTIONS IN LIMINE RE: TEXT MESSAGES AND 911 CALL:
III. FACTS
After spending the evening out, roommates D.M., B.F., Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Morgan returned to their home at 1122 King Road in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022. At approximately 2:00 a.m., they met up in Kaylee’s bedroom and talked for a while before going to bed. The fifth roommate, Xana Kernodle, who was out with her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, was not home yet. The roommates debated going out to a food truck for a late snack, prompting D.M. to send a text at 2:10 a.m. to an Uber driver she knew to see if he was driving. Exh. Dl. Ultimately, however, the girls decided to just go to bed.
At approximately 4:00 a.m., D.M. heard strange noises and crying coming from the bathroom. She opened her door at one point and saw a man dressed in black with a ski mask on walking by her bedroom door. She then placed calls and texts to her other roommates to see if they were awake. Only B.F., who resided on the ground floor, answered. They spoke once for 24 seconds, during which D.M. told B.F. she thought she heard something. They spoke again a minute later for 41 seconds when D.M. told B.F. she saw a man in a ski mask leaving the house.
They then exchanged the following text messages between 4:22 and 4:26 a.m.:
D.M. to B.F.: No one is answering
D.M. to B.F.: I’m rlly confused rn.
D.M. to Kaylee: Kaylee
D.M. to B.F.: What’s going on
B.F. to D.M.: Ya dude wtf
B.F. to D.M.: Xana was wearing all black
D.M. to B.F.: I’m freaking out rn
D.M. to B.F.: No it’s like a ski mask almost
B.F. to D.M.: Stfu
B.F. to D.M.: Actually
D.M. to B.F.: Like he had soemtbinf over is for head and little nd mouth
D.M. to B.F.: Bethant I’m not kidding o am so freaked out
B.F. to D.M.: So am I
D.M. to B.F.: My phone is going to die fuc
k
B.F. to D.M.: Come to my room
B.F. to D.M.: Run
B.F. to D.M.: Down here
D.M. to B.F.: I’m scRwd tho
B.F. to D.M.: Ya IK but it’s better than being alone
Exh. Dl.
During the foregoing exchange, D.M. also attempted contacting Ethan Chapin through Snapchat. Id; GJ Trans, at 181:6-21.5 She again tried calling Kaylee and Xana, but neither responded. Exh. Dl; GJ Trans, at 182:4*15. D.M. then exited her room and began running toward B.F.’s bedroom. On her way, she noticed Xana lying on the floor of her bedroom, with her head towards the wall and her feet toward to the door. D.M. thought Xana was drunk. GJ Trans, at 182:16-183:7.
Once D.M. arrived at B.F’s room, they locked the door and both made additional unanswered calls to the other roommates. At 4:32 a.m. D.M. again texted Kaylee, ‘Pls answer” with no response. Exh. D1. Between approximately 5:00 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., D.M, engaged in activity on her phone, primarily creating, editing and deleting images and videos. Id. Her phone activity then ceased until 8:05, when D.M. accessed Instagram for a few minutes. Id. At 10:00 a.m., D.M. again accessed Instagram and communicated over Snapchat. At 10:23, she texted Madison, asking “R u up[.]” Id. She received no response. D.M. continued to access Instagram and Snapchat until 11:29 a.m., when she texted Kaylee, "R u up??” Id. Again, there was no response, which D.M. thought was strange because Kaylee and Madison were “early wakers.” GJ Trans, at 188:15-24. D.M. continued accessing various social media sites, included checking Ethan and Xana’s Snapmap locations. Exh. D1; GJ Trans., at 188:7-13. At approximately 11:40, D.M/s father texted her about scheduling a time for a chat, to which D.M. responded. She also received two texts from a person named “Jenna” stating: “bro” and “do u guys need me to come get u?” Exh. D1.
At approximately 11:50 a.m., D.M. called her friend E.A. and asked her to come over and check the house because she was scared. E.A. and her boyfriend, H.J. came over. Exh. D1; GJ Trans, at 276:9-12. They met D.M. and B.F. at the bottom floor of the house. GJ Trans, at 277:2-4. Together D.M., B.F. and H.J. started to walk up the stairs to the second floor. When they reached the second floor, H.J. went to the kitchen to grab a kitchen knife. When he came back out, D.M. “saw Xana again for a split second. And I just started bawling because I thought she had just like -1 don’t even know. I thought maybe she was still just drunk and all asleep on the floor.” GJ Trans, at 190:1-25; 245:22-246:20. B.F. also saw Xana lying on the floor. Id. at 231:13-17.
H.J. told D.M. and B.F. to “get out.” E.A., who had started up the stairs, also turned around after H.J. instructed her not to come any further. Id. at 276:13-21. They both went outside. Shortly afterwards, H.J. exited the house and told them to call 911. He was pale white and mentioned something about someone being unconscious. Id. at 191:9-18.
At 11:56 a.m., B.F. called 911 from her cell phone and spoke to Carolina Calvin, the 911 dispatcher. The call lasted four minutes and 11 seconds. During the call, the phone was passed around to different individuals, including B.F., D.M., H.J. and an unidentified female speaker. Heaving, heavy breathing and crying can be heard throughout the call. B.F. spoke first, stating “something is happening. Something’s happened in our house and we don’t know what.” State's Exh. S-2 (911 call audio). B.F. attempted to provide the address of the house to dispatch but could not continue. Id. At that point, an unidentified female speaker took the phone and provided the address and B.F.’s phone number. The following exchange ensued:
911 operator: Okay. And tell me exactly what’s going on.
Female: Um, one of our — one of the roommates who’s passed out and she was drunk last night and she's not waking up.
911 operator: Okay.
Female: Oh, and they saw some man in their house last night. Yeah.
911 operator: And are you with the patient?
D.M.: Hi, this is [D.M.]
911 operator: Okay. I need someone to keep the phone, stop passing it around.
D.M.: Can I just tell you what happened, pretty much?
911 operator: What is going on currently? Is someone passed out right now?
D.M.: I don’t really know, but pretty much at 4:00 a.m. -
911 operator: Okay. I need to know what’s going on right now, if someone is passed out. Can you find that out?
DM: Yeah, I’ll come — come on. B. We got to go check. But we have to.
Is she passed out? She’s passed out. What’s wrong? She’s not waking up.
H.J.: Xana
Id.
D.M. then informed dispatch that Xana was twenty years old. At that point, H.J. took the phone. Dispatch asked him if “she” was breathing, to which H.J. answered “No.” Law enforcement arrived at that point and, after confirming with D.M. that the responding officer had a defibrillator, dispatch ended the call. Later, at approximately 1:04 p.m. that day, D.M. received a Vandal Alert regarding the homicide.
