James Pilcher
@jamespilcher
Good morning from Pike County murder trial of George Wagner IV. First was hearing on the media order - judge says the writ from appeals court striking his ban on showing exhibits and evidence will stand. So we can broadcast what we want on our discretion.
First on the stand today will be BCI analyst Julia Eveslage returning to stand to discuss evidence found in search of Flying W ranch introduced yesterday - this is her third or fourth trip to stand - so far she has been one of the keys in connecting dots with evidence
Actually the next witness is
Dana Forney - DNA lab manager for BCI. She is opting in for video.
She is now the criminal intelligence supervisor for BCI
"They need the nerds behind the computers to analyze that" - talking about her job finding information for agents in the background from phones, laptops etc.
Does a lot of work with cell phones. Correction from saying she was in DNA - that was from a quick Google search. She was one of two analysts assigned long term to the case, along with Julia Eveslage.
Did a LOT of work on the case. She analyzed Billy Wagner's cell phone records. Was not registered to him but Dennise Carter - the number showed up on Chris Rhoden Sr's records
Chart shows calls made on April 21-22 and towers they hit
View attachment 372687
Going through calls starting that morning. Two calls from Jake when he was near the Flying W. Then more calls to and from tower near Peterson Road house.
He and George Wagner IV had phone calls at 5 pm. and 5:50 and then Billy also talked to someone at Wagner house landline at 5:51 p.m. Then called George again at 5:51 p.m.
Billy was still at the Flying W according to cell site info.
Shortly before 6, Billy had five calls/texts with George. Then he called Chris Rhoden Sr. Led to call back after 8 p.m. from Chris Sr. Then there was another one at 10:22 p.m. and another at 10:51 p.m. - routed to voicemail. The phone was hitting tower near Peeterson Rd.
More calls from Chris Sr to Billy's phone at 10:52 p.m. and 10:55 p.m. to the phone routed to VM - it was being serviced by tower near Peterson Road.
Billy's mother called him at 11:04 p.m. - sent to VM - phone was serviced by tower near Peterson Road.
Now onto the calls from that phone on April 22. First call was from mother Fredericka but it didn't connect so no location data. Phone might have been off or out of service.
Billy checked voicemail at 9:55 a.m. that morning using cell tower near Peterson Road home.
He then made a series of calls to someone named Rick McCoy, then called his mother - again from Peterson Road.
Now asked if that number ever tried to get in touch with Chris Rhoden Sr. based on the VM Rhoden apparently left. Answer no. Last outgoing call this device end of May 2016.
They requested records after the interview with Billy Wagner - Forney is asked if Billy made any efforts to call Chris Sr. as he said in interview with BCI. Answer is no. These records would have shown if Billy had tried to make contact even if number was off.
She shared her findings with investigative team. Was asked to see if it was unusual that the device was connecting at Peterson Road - because Billy wasn't living there at the time.
Connecting at Peterson Road on April 21 2016 night of the murders, that is.
She went back starting in January 2016 to see what the last connection was at night and first in the morning. Put all those dates and connections on a calendar
Gotta love data - she said "nerdy pivot tables" - I actually teach this for @UKJAMschool
and we'll be going over it in class tonight.
Here’s what the calendar looks like
View attachment 372688
Forney points out this is an analysis of the device and where it was, not the person
but does that mean we are able to see jake and angela on the stand? or can they still opt out?
That came up but judge is still going to allow ALL witnesses to opt out - including Jake and Angela. Our lawyer tried to bring it up but judge stood his ground.
In January, there were no days that it either ended or started at Peterson Road location. In February the same, he was all over the country as a truck driver. No days it started or ended at Peterson in February either
No days for that situation in March 2016 - the device was in the area of Flying W that month as well.
In April no days Billy’s phone ended in Peterson until 21st. Then it stays at Peterson the rest of the month
View attachment 372689
Billy's was the only phone she had records for at the time - this would have been early 2017. Now up for cross examination
Parker up for defense cross-examination: asking about how cell phone towers work.
Parker asks just because bouncing off particular tower, doesn't mean it is the closest. Forney says correct.
Parker points out it was registered to someone else - and could they rule that person out as whether they used the phone and not Billy? Forney says the number was connecting to known associates/family of Billy Wagner
Parker asks if possible to go back and get content of phone calls or texts - Forney says she doesn't know how it would be done. Also once again acknowledges this is only where the device hit the tower. Doesn't know distance from tower at the time.
Parker done with cross. On re-direct: Maps show exact location of towers, and what side Billy's device was hitting at the time.
Later in investigation, agents got search warrants for more real-time data like pinging towers. So Forney able to confirm those were the towers in question.
Also later, investigators got warrants to see real-time data coming through from individual phones. FBI determined which towers serviced the crime scene.
Also later in investigation - all the Wagners would change their numbers and used "burner phones." Made it difficult to get warrants. Dennis Carter was Angela's brother - but investigators determined it was Billy's number and Carter never used it.
Starting new thread for next witness in Wagner murder trial. BCI analyst Julia Eveslage returns to stand at this point
link:
https://twitter.com/jamespilcher