Diwataman, what is your take on the failure of the SPD to contact Rachel Jeantel immediately after the shooting. Was it total incompetence or did it really require a rare phone charger or information from Tracy Martin or what? TIA.
I’ve never heard anything about a “rare charger”. The Cellebrite package I would assume they used comes with a wide variety of charging adapters and clearly they got it working at some point as they were able to utilize the 911 function to call themselves with and get the phone number. I don’t want to say at this point that I am sure it was total incompetence because we don’t have the entire story but it seems to me Santiago wasn’t quite familiar with what to do in an investigative framework regarding the cell phone. It seems the phone investigation was delegated to him for some reason I would assume by lead investigator Serino.
I truly wonder why they said the phone was in Sybrina’s name. How can this be? Crump et al said they got the cell phone records by Tracy looking them up but if the phone was in Sybrina’s name then she would have had to do it. Why would they lie about such a thing? Of course Jackson also said a private investigator did it so who knows what to believe.
Let’s just go over some of this. From the 184 pdf it seems like there may have been concerned with the wetness of the phone and they may have let it dry off for a day and then sent it to SCSO on the 28th. But really they don’t need the phone at all. All they have to do is ask Tracy if that was Trayvon’s phone, the carrier used and the phone number. They must have asked Tracy if it was Trayvon’s phone or else why would they be asking him for the info in the first place.
The 27th was a Monday, they could have gotten the SAO to get a subpoena over to T-Mobile that day I’m sure and I’m sure within a few days they would have had at least the basic phone call info; incoming/outgoing, date, time, phone numbers, duration. It should have really been as simple as that, no phone needed, no need to try to get into the phone, no need to ask Tracy for anything else to get into the phone.
But for some odd reason that’s not what we have here. We have a police officer trying to get into the phone itself, why? He has contact with the SAO on the 28th asking if he needs a search warrant but if he’s interested in call info he needs a subpoena not a search warrant. But I think it’s clear either Santigo doesn’t know he doesn’t need the phone to get phone records or that’s not even his concern. Perhaps he thinks all he would need to do is get into the phone then he would not have to worry about getting phone records but that would be the hard way to go about it especially with a phone locked with a swipe code as he clearly must have learned with his process.
He sends the cell phone to SCSO on the 28th to see if they can get into it.
On the 1st they tell him they can’t because of the swipe code.
On the 2nd he gets the phone back. Then we get this on that same day:
“Inv. Singleton contacted a representative from T-Mobile who told her if the Sanford Police Department obtained the cell phone number and the pin number to the account they would be able to access the swipe code on the cell phone.”
They press the “Emergency Call” button that’s available even when the phone is locked and it clearly calls the 911 call center and they call the number back, twice, to confirm. So now they have the phone number. They should already have asked for the number from Tracy yet they do it this way.
Now they think all they need is the pin number to the phone account and T-Mobile says they can reset/bypass/access the swipe code. But we know T-Mobile can’t reset, bypass or access a swipe code yet Santigo persists in this vain and calls Tracy for the PIN number three days later on the 5th?
Something happens with the phone on the 9th but I have no idea what it is. It has something to do with the SCSO again, Sgt. Kent at the SCSO, and is checked back into evidence at the SPD that same day.
The phone sat in evidence for 11 days. Then on the 20th it’s sent to the FDLE for prints where it remained in custody.
NVNM sites an article where Morgenstern said they were in the process of getting a subpoena for the records. I believe there is also an article somewhere out there with Wolfinger saying something about it. In one of the pretrial hearings West was on the stand and testified to the fact they found the cell phone tower ping map for Trayvon’s phone in the SPD file. So clearly a lot more was going on with that phone then we know about. Also from what I understand the SIM card contains the last call info which the SCSO was able to access when Santiago was talking to them.
Gutman @1:14 “Police had the call logs…and her[Rachel’s] number…”
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/trayvon-martin-investigating-investigation-15965498Gutman could be lying there.
