CK's full testimony/Prosecutor's line of questioning.
3:37 p.m. Chervenak has no further questions. We are taking a 5-minute recess. Alex Ramos will then ask questions on behalf of the defense.
3:34 p.m. Prosecutor continues to go through web searches Kouri did on her phone. They include news stories and online articles about recovering data from deleted phones, prisons for the rich, police seeing messages on your phone, 5 things to know about Utah’s new prison and searches involving how long it takes to get life insurance money.
3:25 p.m. Chervenak asks Kotrodimos about web searches done on Kouri’s phone. The searches include: “can you delete everything on an icloud account,” “can deleted text messages be retrieved,” “utah prison,” “women utah prison,” “How to completely wipe an ipohne clear remotely,” “can copes force you to do a lie detector test,” “can probable cause be testimony,” “what are you allowed inside utah jails,” “will life insurance pay if death certificate is pending,” “luxury prisons for the rich in america,” “where is my location on iphone,” “kouri richins kamas net worth,” “what is FBI analysis of electronics,” and many more.
3:18 p.m. The images are memes accessed from her phone at 8:29 a.m. on March 4. These are the memes:
3:14 p.m. Kotrodimos recovered three PNG thumbnail images from Kouri’s phone. These images were “ghost” or “orphaned” images. The original images have been deleted, but the “ghost” or print of the images remained on the phone. These are remnant images from the phone. Defense objects to having the photos admitted. Judge overrules the objection and the images are admitted.
3:07 p.m. We now see a graph showing Kouri’s phone activity on March 3, 2022, between 8:30 p.m. and midnight. The phone is locked and unlocked several times. Then, at 3:06 a.m., the phone is unlocked for 28 seconds. At 3:07 a.m., the speaker is activated. At 3:08 a.m., the device travels 243 feet. At 3:10 a.m., the phone is unlocked for 1 minute and 40 seconds. At 3:15 a.m., the phone is unlocked for 37 seconds. At 3:19 a.m., the phone is unlocked for 28 seconds. Then again for 3 seconds. At 3:21 a.m., the phone travels 135 feet. At 3:22 a.m., the receiver is activated.
3:02 p.m. Carmen’s device never visited the Draper area other than the three dates when she met up with Robert at Maverik, according to Kotrodimos. We now see a timeline showing Eric’s phone activity on March 3, 2022, between 8:30 p.m. and midnight. Eric is texting work associates, he has a call with someone and at 9:45 p.m., and he searches how far from Scottsdale to Nogales. At 10:13 p.m., Eric receives a text message from a contact named Raul. There is no indication that the message was ever opened or read by Eric.
3 p.m. We now see cell tower mapping from March 9 between Robert Crozier and Carmen Lauber. It begins at 10:15 a.m. and ends around 11:28 p.m. Their devices meet up in the Draper area.
2:57 p.m. On March 9, 2022, we see a cell tower map showing text conversations between Kouri and Carmen’s devices. Communication begins at 6:28 a.m. and continues all day. Carmen travels down Provo Canyon to the area at or near the Maverik Draper. Robert Crozier travels from the Davis County area to Draper.
2:55 p.m. We now see call records from March 2, 2022. At 10:22 a.m., there is an outgoing 3-minute call from Kouri to the IRS. At 10:27 a.m., there is a 101-minute phone call.
2:50 p.m. We now see cell phone tower mapping showing text communication between Kouri and Carmen on Feb. 26, 2022. Kouri and Carmen texted 71 times between 2:25 and 10:33 p.m. that day. Robert and Carmen communicated 65 times that day.
2:48 p.m. We now see a graph of Eric Richins’ cell phone movement on Feb. 14, 2022. There is an 87-minute gap in activity between 12:05 and 1:32 p.m. No movement data was recorded on his phone during this period of time. Kotrodimos analyzed other days on Eric’s phone, and it was not typical for Eric to have an 87-minute gap in activity during the middle of the day.
2:44 p.m. Court is back in session. The judge explains to the jury that they can consider the text message exchange we are however they see fit. We see the messages between Kouri and Eric on Valentine’s Day afternoon. They go back and forth. Kouri is not home, but Eric is. They message back and forth. Eric says he wishes she was there. This chain of messages end with Kouri saying there is food on the seat of the truck.
2:20 p.m. Judge says we are going to take a restroom break. He dismisses the jury. Judge now going through an exhibit with defense and prosecution. He says parties need to be precise when witness testifies about them. We are in recess until 2:40 p.m.
2:17 p.m. Kotrodimos now explains a text message sent from Eric to Kouri on Feb. 14, 2022 at 11:33 a.m. He says he doesn’t feel well and is going to lay down.
2:15 p.m. We see several of the messages between Kouri and Grossman on Valentine’s Day. Some of them say, “I love you” and “Wanna be my Valentines” and “My heart is smiling! When those three words come from you, it’s very unique. Different than any time I’ve heard them before.”
2:12 p.m. On Feb. 14, 2022, at 8:53 p.m., Kouri called the Mirror Lake Diner. There was also communication between Kouri and Josh Grossman that day.
2:07 p.m. Carmen and Kouri are in communication all afternoon into the evening. Kotrodimos has another exhibit detailing the amount of communication between Robert Crozier and Carmen on Feb. 11, 2022.
2:02 p.m. Kotrodimos walks through Carmen’s cell phone activity movement through Heber, Provo Canyon, down to Draper. She and Kouri are communicating with each other. Meanwhile, Robert Crozier’s cell phone is leaving Davis County and heading toward Utah County. This is one of the days that Carmen testified she picked up pills for Kouri. Crozier’s activity goes up significantly as the afternoon progresses.
1:58 p.m. Kouri called the IRS three times on Feb. 11, 2022. On the same day, Kouri and Carmen communicated with each other. An exhibit is shown displaying cell phone tower mapping of texts between Kouri and Carmen on Feb. 11.
1:56 p.m. All of the text messages have been deleted on the phones. They just have records showing the text messages were made, but the actual content is gone. Chervenak admits call detail records for Kouri. Eric Richins’ name is on the record because he was the account holder.
1:53 p.m. Sidebar over. Judge allows the exhibit in and we briefly see it on screen. Chervenak asks about communication between Carmen and Kouri. They were communicating from January 2022 through March 15, 2022. There were 800 text messages between the two of them during that time. That’s 10-11 text messages per day. Between March 16, 2022, and the end of the year, Kotrodimos says there were about 600-650 text messages between Kouri and Carmen. That’s about three text messages per day. About a 70% decrease.
1:48 p.m. Defense objects to the exhibit showing the vacation reservation. Judge asks attorneys for a sidebar.
1:44 p.m. Kotrodimos says Kouri and Grossman texted “daily, with a few exceptions” beginning in September 2020. On one of Kouri’s phones, the majority of the communication was only with Grossman. Kotrodimos got a lot of information on that communication from Grossman’s phone, not Kouri’s. Kotrodimos located a vacation reservation found inside Kouri’s device.
1:42 p.m. Chervenak shows the witness three text messages between Kouri and Eric at three different times: Dec. 2020, June 2021 and January 2022. She also asks him to review text threads from different time periods.
1:39 p.m. Kouri had a silver iPhone and a blue iPhone at the same time. On the blue iPhone, there were no mass deletions like the previous phones. Kotrodimos also viewed an extraction for Carmen Lauber’s phone. Kotrodimos says hundreds of texts and dozens of calls had been deleted. Kotrodimos also viewed an extraction of Josh Grossman’s phone. Grossman was Kouri’s boyfriend.
1:38 p.m. Kouri began using a new silver device starting on April 14, 2022. She ported over her old number to the new phone. There were some deletions noted, but not in the same manner as the previous phone, Kotrodimos says. “There were not big chunks of hundreds of texts deleted.”
1:36 p.m. On Kouri’s phone, there was evidence of deletions between Jan. 1 through mid-March 2022, Kotrodimos says. “Hundreds of text messages” were missing from the phone along with call logs and web history information.
1:33 p.m. Chervenak admits an exhibit showing activity on Kouri’s three phones. Kouri had two numbers on one phone. One of her numbers was a voiceover IP number that used internet data, so that information typically would not show up on cell phone call records.
1:30 p.m. Kotrodimos found text messages between Eric and Kouri regarding THC gummy use. There were three conversations. One in November 2021, two in January 2022. Chervenak has text message exchanges Eric and Kouri about the gummies shown to Kotrodimos. Outside of THC, he found no communication between Eric and Kouri about buying drugs or any talk of illicit drugs.
1:26 p.m. Kotrodimos began working on this case in May 2023. He became familiar with what the people in the case looked like because he saw a lot of photos on their phones. Chervenak asks about Eric Richins’ phone. He reviewed the report from Eric’s phone and did not observe any mass deletions.
1:23 p.m. Kotrodimos says once a file is “vacuumed out” from a system file, you likely won’t be able to find the file. Even if a text message is deleted from a phone, it won’t change anything on the receiving end of the person getting the text. Different cell phone companies maintain their records for various lengths of time. Verizon keeps records for 18-24 months, but only keeps location data for about a year. AT&T and T-Mobile keep that information for a longer period of time, Kotrodimos says. A user cannot access their information – they are business records maintained by the carriers.
1:20 p.m. The information cannot be manipulated or changed during the cell phone extraction. It’s possible a phone is extracted more than once. Once the extraction is done, a report will generate showing text messages, photos, calls, etc. It can also show if an item has been previously deleted from the device as an active file. The software is able to find the item in a database. It’s not possible on all items the user deletes.
1:19 p.m. Kotrodimos explains how he is able to get the information from Cellebrite. Cellebrite is the most commonly used program. It’s been used in other investigations, including the Chad and Lori Daybell murder cases.
1:16 p.m. When analyzing phone data in this case, Kotrodimos says he examined the phones and the call detail records. The call detail records are stored by the cell phone carrier. The record contains a time stamp, who the communication was between, the duration of the phone call and the cell phone tower information.
1:14 p.m. Prosecutor Lindsay Chervenak asks about his professional background. She asks about digital forensics and his experience. His speciality is mostly phones and some computers. He is Cellebrite certified and is trained in location analysis with cell phone data.
1:12 p.m. Next witness is Chris Kotrodimos. He’s the owner of M20 Solutions. He consults with prosecutors for his job. He has an extensive history in law enforcement. He evaluated phone records in this case.