Tag Archive for: murder

Pasadena police banking on phone-hacking tool to solve cold case murder


An engineer shows devices and explains the technology developed by the Israeli firm Cellebrite's technology on November 9, 2016 in the Israeli city of Petah Tikva. It only takes a few seconds for an employee of Cellebrite's technology, one of the world's leading hacking companies, to take a locked smartphone and pull the data from it. / AFP / JACK GUEZ (Photo credit should read JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

An engineer displays devices developed by the Israeli firm Cellebrite in 2016. It takes only a few seconds for an employee of Cellebrite, one of the world’s leading hacking companies, to take a locked smartphone and pull the data from it. (Jack Guez/ AFP via Getty Images)

For years, a locked cellphone belonging to the suspect in a Pasadena homicide sat in an evidence room as investigators sought a way to get around the device’s security measures.

Police might have finally caught a break.

Israeli mobile forensics firm Cellebrite has released a software update with a “Lock Bypass” feature that could allow police to access the suspect’s locked Samsung g550t phone and retrieve any evidence about the December 2015 slaying, according to a recently filed search warrant application.

As smartphones have become ubiquitous, law enforcement agencies across the U.S. have recognized their potential usefulness in criminal investigations — a vast trove of personal information about whom the users communicate with, where they shop and where they travel.

But police departments’ attempts to access phones have often put them at odds with companies such as Apple and Samsung, which market their devices’ built-in security and privacy to digital-savvy users.

It’s not clear from the warrant in the Pasadena case if investigators were able to bypass the phone’s passcode lock using the Cellebrite program or what, if any, data they extracted. But in an affidavit supporting the warrant, a Pasadena homicide detective wrote that he learned about the update in mid-January from a computer forensic examiner assigned to the Verdugo Regional Crime Laboratory.

“In January 2023, the Cellebrite program successfully bypassed the lock on a Samsung cellular telephone, for an unrelated investigation, with the new software update,” said the warrant, which seeks records from a month before the incident through Nov. 18, 2015, the date of the suspect’s arrest. “This search warrant seeks permission to search and seize records that may be found on [the suspect’s] cellular telephone in whatever form they are found as it relates to this homicide investigation.”

The simmering debate over cellphone privacy first spilled into the…

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Day five of Andre McDonald’s murder trial over wife’s death


Air Force Major Andre McDonald faces life in prison if found guilty of killing his wife, Andreen McDonald, in 2019.

SAN ANTONIO — The accused killer’s former boss took the witness stand on day five of the Andre McDonald trial, revealing new insight into the U.S. Air Force major’s behavior.

Andre McDonald faces life in prison if found guilty of killing his wife, Andreen McDonald, in 2019. His trial started Monday.

His former supervisor from Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland testified Friday and described the defendant’s demeanor when news broke about Andreen’s disappearance.

Lieutenant Colonel Steven Chetelat served as McDonald’s superior officer in the Cyber Warfare Unit at Lackland Air Force Base.

Chetelat visited McDonald at his home on March 1, 2019, the day Andreen was reported missing. He testified that he came to check on McDonald to see if he needed anything and brought McDonald some fast food. Chetelat said he wanted to make sure he was being treated fairly, focusing most of the conversation on his family’s safety. 

During the three-hour visit, law enforcement was present and documenting evidence as a result of a search warrant. He described McDonald as “calm and leveled” at the time. 

“I found it potentially peculiar. By mirror imaging I thought I would probably be bouncing off the walls, Chetelat said.

After McDonald’s arrest on March 3, Chetelat says McDonald started working from home three days a week. He also testified that McDonald never expressed a desire to help search for Andreen.

The five-month search for Andreen involved the multiple community-led efforts and organizations.

Clifton Klabunde also took the stand, recalling the moment he came across human bones in a rural field of north Bexar County. 

Klabunde…

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E.U. Authorities Crack Encryption of Massive Criminal and Murder Network

Four-year investigation shuts down EncroChat and busts 746 alleged criminals for planning murders, selling drugs and laundering money.
Mobile Security – Threatpost

Officer Charged With Felony Murder Now Facing Seven More Charges Over Deadly No-Knock Raid

The botched drug raid in Houston that left two homeowners dead and one cop paralyzed from the waist down has resulted in additional criminal charges… against the cops.

Officer Gerald Goines — already facing felony murder charges for the raid that left Rhogena Nicholas and Dennis Tuttle dead — claimed an informant purchased heroin from Tuttle and saw guns in the house. One no-knock raid later, Nicholas and Tuttle were dead, killed by cops whose actions were set in motion by a warrant affidavit full of lies.

The heroin supposedly sold to Goines’ informant? Pulled from the console of Goines’ cruiser. The controlled buy didn’t happen either. No one has been able to locate the informant Goines claimed saw heroin and guns in the Tuttle residence. As a result, more than 1,400 cases Goines had a hand in have been placed under review. Two dozen have already been dismissed. The DA’s office and the FBI have also opened their own investigations.

The raid produced nothing the cops were looking for. There was no heroin. There were a couple of guns, but the gun Tuttle supposedly used to shoot at officers wasn’t in the search inventory. All the officers found was personal use amounts of cocaine and marijuana. An independent forensic examination of the scene came to the conclusion that either the state’s forensic unit sucks at what it does or that it was attempting to make the evidence fit the false narrative crafted by the officers who participated in the raid.

Charges are being added to existing charges Officer Goines faces as the fallout from the raid continues, the Houston Chronicle reports.

A federal grand jury on Wednesday charged two former Houston police officers at the center of a failed January drug raid with civil rights violations, falsifying records and lying about use of confidential informants, marking the latest turn in one of the worst HPD scandals in decades.

[…]

Authorities allege [Gerald Goines] fabricated an informant and lied on a search warrant affidavit, an offense report and the tactical plan made in preparation for the bust that turned into a gun battle that ended with the deaths of Nicholas and Tuttle and with five HPD officers injured.

And it wasn’t just Officer Goines lying. The investigation of the Tuttle residence began with a 911 call — supposedly from Rhogena Nicholas’ mother — saying the couple were doing drugs and had guns in the house.

But it wasn’t someone’s overly-concerned mother. It was actually a neighbor. This neighbor is now facing charges for her part in the tragedy.

Federal investigators said they believe they have the 911 caller who made false accusations that led to the botched raid of a Harding Street home, leaving two dead and two former officers looking at prison time.

Patricia Garcia, a 53-year-old woman, was picked up Wednesday morning from the house directly across the street from the scene of the deadly Jan. 8 raid. Garcia is alleged to have falsely stated her daughter was at the home located at 7815 Harding St. and that she believed there were guns and drugs inside of the residence.

This isn’t the end of this debacle, but every new development says nothing good about the Houston PD’s narcotics unit or the department’s leadership. Chief Art Acovedo spoke out against these officers, but only after the original narrative — the one Goines is charged with creating — became impossible to defend.

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