-- Morning testimony - 11.13.2023
Back in court for the continuation of
#KaitlinArmstrong ‘s trial.
Detective Daniel Portnoy is back on the witness stand. The state continues by asking Portnoy about the devices he worked to extract data from. A photo is displayed of an iPhone and charging code. Portnoy points out numbers from the IMEI and the SIM card.
Prosecution pulls up a ‘GrayKey Progress Report’ from an iPhone 13 mini. Portnoy reads off the account owner associated - Moriah Wilson. Portnoy confirms they extracted over 123 GB from Wilson’s phone.
Prosecution pulls up a Cellebrite Extraction Report. One of the headings reads ‘Applications Usage Log.’ Portnoy says that contains a lot of info - but it shows what apps are being used. Portnoy says it shows use of text messages, instagram, and switching btw apps.
Portnoy says that that the data shows app usage on Wilson’s phone from May 11, 8:46 p.m. Google drive application was used on 9:13 p.m., acc to Portnoy. Text message app usage at May 11, 9:13 p.m. Portnoy says the phone was generally in continuous use, in the document timeframe
State pulls up a new exhibit, a Cellebrite extraction report showing text message. This is btw Wilson and Christopher Strickland (no relation to Colin.) Texts from 9:13 read:‘A vertical and a horizontal’ - Strickland‘Just dropped some in. Lemme know if these will work’ - Mo
Strickland appears to have responded to the message with, ‘thank you!’ We’ve previously heard that Wilson’s last messages were to a podcaster.
Portnoy says there are multiple ways for a phone to collect (location) data. Wi-Fi, towers, metadata from images, more.
Prosecution asks Portnoy about a MacBook computer, which he says belonged to Moriah Wilson. We’re seeing photos of a blue cloth compute case, and the MacBook computer.
Portnoy says he didn’t find anything that completely stood out, pertaining to Wilson’s death, but the data was stored in case.
A new state exhibit. An iPhone (on airplane mode) and phone case.
Portnoy now referencing the GrayKey Report. He says the device is an iPhone 13 Pro, but the device name is iPhone 11 Pro. Last week, Portnoy described how the iPhone device name can be changed by users, and transfer over at times. Portnoy reads the account owner as ‘Kaitlin.’
Looks to be about 17 GB of data were extracted from this phone - Portnoy described it as ‘limited.’
Court description: many familiar faces from the last two weeks are back in the courtroom - media, observing attorneys. Jurors appear to be looking at the exhibits displayed on the monitors. I can’t see Armstrong’s face, but she’s facing forward, potentially looking at a monitor.
Another state exhibit. Portnoy identifies it as a phone belonging to Colin Strickland. GrayKey report for this phone being displayed. Over 219 GB extracted from this phone.
Portnoy is going over the call log from Strickland’s phone. Prosecution asks Portnoy if the records show that there was an active call, beginning at 9:07 p.m. on May 11, 2022. Portnoy confirms.
Now seeing a report showing contacts that were saved in Strickland’s phone. Interaction status shows if a number or contact was blocked. We see one row with a ‘blocked’ status, and the associated email appearing to belong to Wilson. Portnoy says ‘Christine Wall’ is not blocked.
Now seeing an entire spreadsheet of blocked contacts from Strickland’s phone. This shows 98 contacts. We previously heard a figure in the 70s during Strickland’s time on the witness stand.
Now seeing photos of a computer Portnoy says belonged to Armstrong. Portnoy touches back on the encryption, which interfered with their ability to extract data.
More phones and photos being shown. Last week, Det. Spitler said he requested 25-30 search warrants in this case, partially for cellphones and technology.
Portnoy says only one phone had multiple SIM cards. An iPhone SE.
Portnoy says one thing was “not normal.” The numbers on one of the SIM cards did not match another element on the phone. However, there is a phone number associated. Portnoy says he found the phone number belonged to a ‘K. Armstrong.’
Portnoy talking about SIM card extraction. He says text messages aren’t actually saved to the SIM card anymore. No stored contacts on a SIM card either.
A Lenovo ThinkPad computer was also examined. Portnoy says it was encrypted and they could not extract data. Portnoy says it belonged to Wilson.
Prosecution: were two of the items actual geolocation data for Moriah Wilson’s phone and Colin Strickland’s phone? Portnoy: Yes.
Geolocation data extracted from Wilson’s phone is 440 pages, Portnoy confirms. Document begins May 11, 2022 12:01:09 A.M. and ends May 11, 2022 11:58:29 P.M. Portnoy confirms over 2,000 data points were collected for that timeframe.
Portnoy does not do phone location analysis in his job. Longitude and latitude are captured.
Portnoy confirms the geolocation data captured from Strickland’s phone was 460+ pages.
Portnoy is describing the screenshots on display, a text message from United Airlines about flight check in. Dated May 10th, indicates flight to Austin. Appears this was captured from Wilson’s data. A similar email being shown. A flight reservation for traveler Anna Moriah Wilson
Looking at data files on the iPhone 11. Dated May 2, 2022. Contains an image of a person on a bike. Portnoy says material saved in cache isnt purposefully saved by the user. Portnoy says very much possible the iPhone 11 was looking at image displayed in the thumbnail on instagram
We’re seeing more data with photo thumbnails, which Portnoy confirms were seen from Instagram and saved in the cache. One, though, is a screenshot. Appears to be itinerary for flight, showing traveler Armstrong going to PHX on May 2, 2022.
One of the photos saved in the cache, shows a photograph of Moriah Wilson.
Portnoy says the owner of the iPhone, whose cache we were just viewing, was Kaitlin Armstrong.
Another data report from Armstrong’s iPhone. Portnoy says image from January 13, 2022 was sent or received from Armstrong’s phone via text. Portnoy describes the photos as individuals at a shooting range.
State pulls up text messages btw Armstrong and ‘Kyle Sanders.’ Nov. 7, 2021. Message from Armstrong reads: “Well today is his birthday. He’s at home with a 24 year old who may or may not have moved to Austin. And I’m in Tulum solo. Mostly practicing sound healing,” more.
Another file - April 8, 2022. Portnoy says looking at file path, this is associated with iCloud. Another file from March 9, 2022. File path indicates image was saved to phone somehow. We didn’t see the photo.
State passes the witness. Defense begins their questioning.
-- Defense -- cross examination --
Jeremy Sylestine, with the defense, says he doesn’t want to confuse Portnoy, but there’s some information that’s, “all over the place.”
Portnoy says he’s careful about saying these explicitly. “Lots of times, even when I’m almost 100% certain, I say most likely.”
Defense asks if data is different than witness testimony.“In a way, it can be more factual,” Portnoy responded.Defense says that Portnoy doesn’t want to be speculative, which he agrees with.
Defense asking about nuance, and whether that’s for Portnoy to suppose. Portnoy says he has limited knowledge outside the data.
Defense references back to presentation about Portnoy’s training and scope of work. That was one of the first things discussed by the state. Defense asks if technology has advanced in terms of what’s available to examiners and consumers. Portnoy agrees.
Defense has Portnoy go over some technical details, like how much memory a computer or phone has, how a terabyte is defined.
Portnoy says it could take years to go through the memory of one device, without exterior help like Cellebrite.
Defense asks if Portnoy is generally very busy. He agrees. Defense: Does DFU have a system in place to allow others in the chain of command to give cases a higher priority?Portnoy: Absolutely.
DFU = digital forensic unit
Portnoy says he has almost 100 cases in his queue at any given moment. He says for a very straightforward case, it could take half a day to look at one device.
Defense asks Portnoy to compare iPads and iPhones. Portnoy says they’re relatively similar, using the same iOS and just as challenging to examine.
Defense asks Portnoy if accounts can be open on two devices, like instagram on a phone and iPad. Portnoy says yes. Defense asks if it’s seamless. Portnoy says he hasn’t tried but it doesn't appear difficult.
Defense wants to ask about iPhones and their location data. Portnoy confirms two from Strickland and Wilson which he created reports for, from May 11, 2022.
Portnoy says how many GPS points are included matters, because it depends on totality.
Defense is going over all of the devices Portnoy attempted to extract data from. Portnoy says he spent months trying to get into the iPhone 11 Pro, saying he didn’t have brute force entry.
15 minute recess