Testimony focuses on cell phone
Friday, August 24, 2007
International customs caused some confusion when a computer forensics expert testified Thursday during the trial of Raul Manuel Magallanez Jr.
Magallanez, 32, is on trial in Lyon County District Court on charges of raping a girl under 14 years of age, in addition to approximately 60 counts of indecent liberties with minors, furnishing alcohol with illicit intentions to minors, aggravated sodomy and other charges.
The confusion arose during testimony by Donna Spaulding, a detective with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department who for four years worked with the Heart of America Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory. The Kansas City-area lab is one of several operated in cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation nationwide.
Spaulding said she had conducted tests on a computer tower taken from Emporia State University and a cell phone belonging to the defendant. Magallanez allegedly had used the ESU computer laboratory to communicate electronically with minors and others.
“I was requested to look for certain e-mail addresses, key word searches, Internet history, and that’s about it,” Spaulding said. “... I was unable to find that data on the computer.”
Spaulding said that universities, especially in computer labs, routinely override or “wipe the drive” between uses.
She did manage to locate text messages, photographs and videos, records and an address book containing more than 380 names from the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card from Magallanez’s cell phone.
Dates on the data, which she photographed or videotaped screen by screen, appeared to conflict substantially with dates that were expected to appear. She said under direct and cross-examination that she could not explain why a date, for example, appeared to be June 12, 2007, when she had done her forensics work in the spring of 2007 and returned the equipment.
Defense attorney Julia Spainhour inquired whether the date could have been changed by someone other than Spaulding. Spaulding responded that she had provided the materials on a read-only disk, which could not have been changed.
Under re-direct examination, County Attorney Marc Goodman asked her about the phone’s Greenwich Mean Time, which identified it as an international cell phone. In some areas of the world, the dates are written differently than in the United States, Goodman said. A date that appeared to be June 12, 2007 (6-12-07) internationally often would be interpreted as “2006 December 7.”
Spaulding agreed that could explain the discrepancy.
The disk Spaulding provided with the report on her findings contained 30 text messages, photographs, two video recordings, calling records and the address book with phone numbers listed. One text message was read aloud — “Then call him. LOL” — and the others were marked on a printout that later was entered into evidence.
Spaulding said that there had been a voice mail message on the cell phone as well.
“I didn’t listen to the voice mail,” she said.
Later in the morning, a girlfriend of an alleged victim identified as Girl No. 3, testified about her knowledge of the relationship between Girl No. 3 and Magallanez.
The girlfriend confirmed that Girl No. 3 had met the defendant at the girlfriend’s home. Magallanez was a friend of the girlfriend’s brother, who spent “almost every day” with the defendant.
“If he wasn’t with him, he was usually, like, on the phone with him,” she said.
Girl No. 3 and Magallanez began texting each other and a relationship began to develop, the girlfriend said, recounting what Girl No. 3 told her.
“(Girl No. 3) just said she was starting to like him,” the girlfriend said. “He said that he was starting to like her, more than a friendship way.”
The alleged victim later told her that she and the defendant had had sexual intercourse a few weeks later. She said Girl No. 3 told her she might be pregnant, and later said that she was.
Magallanez and the girlfriend’s brother were upset at the rumor that had started about Girl No. 3’s relationship and the pregnancy. The brother asked about what had been said, and the girlfriend confirmed what she had heard.
The girlfriend talked about an incident when she, Girl No. 3 and another friend were babysitting the girlfriend’s nieces and nephew at her sister’s home. She said that Girl No. 3 had been communicating with Magallanez during the evening and eventually left to meet him at Walnut Park, a few blocks from where they were babysitting and staying overnight.
The girlfriend said she had been worried about Girl No. 3 going to meet Magallanez and when she did not answer her cell phone, the girlfriend grew more concerned about Girl No. 3’s safety.
“I called multiple times and no one answered,” the girlfriend said. “...Then I finally left her a message that said if she isn’t there in five minutes, I’m calling the police.”
The third teenage girl at the house left to find Girl No. 3, and returned her to the house. Girl No. 3 was upset and crying, the girlfriend testified. Soon, the girlfriend’s brother came to the house.
“... (A)nd then he started getting mad because I threatened to call the police on Manuel,” the girlfriend said. “He said I shouldn’t be threatening to call the cops because he could get in a lot of trouble ...”
She said she told her brother to let Magallanez know that Girl No. 3 would not be available that night.
“I don’t remember exactly what I said, and I was telling him ‘I’m babysitting and I don’t need her running in and out of the house,’” the girlfriend said.
The girlfriend said that when she awakened the next morning around 9 or 10 o’clock, Girl No. 3 already had called her mother to pick her up and had left much earlier than expected.