Christopher Corbitt — Direct/Cross/Redirect
1,280 linesJUDGE EVERETT: You can be seated.
JUDGE EVERETT: Everyone can be seated. Good morning, members of the jury.
JUDGE EVERETT: We are about to resume with the examination of Sergeant Corbitt.
JUDGE EVERETT: Before we get started today, I did want to ask you as a group, we are still good on the snacks?
JUDGE EVERETT: Everybody has enough?
JUDGE EVERETT: Thank you. All right.
JUDGE EVERETT: Headed back to Costco this weekend if need be, but let the bailiffs know.
JUDGE EVERETT: Ms. Dugan, you may examine as necessary.
MS. DUGAN: Thank you, sir.
MS. DUGAN: Alright, so before we go back to your PowerPoint demonstrative, I want to show you one thing.
MS. DUGAN: And before I show it to you, Judge, I'd like to offer State 64JJ into evidence by stipulation.
MR. ZELMAN: That's correct, Your Honor.
JUDGE EVERETT: 64JJ is admitted at this time.
MS. DUGAN: Sergeant Corbitt, does this appear to be an email from DonnaHarvey at gmail.com?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Subject: "Bad news."
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: And it was sent on June 25th of 2013 at about 11 p.m.?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That would be GMT or UTC time, so we would need to subtract four hours from that to be local time. But yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Thank you. So sometime the night of June 25th of 2013. 2013?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: And that was the same day as the "plan of action" email that we saw yesterday from your PowerPoint, which was sent just a couple of days after Wendi's relocation was denied.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: And so in this email sent about five days after Wendi's relocation was denied, from Donna and Harvey to some friends, does it say: "Not in the mood to talk right now and hope you'll understand. Wendi's hearing for relocation was denied. No chance at the appellate level for an appeal. We are all very disappointed. We'll talk soon, I promise. Love, Donna."
MS. DUGAN: Yes. Does it appear her understanding is it's denied and there's no chance for an appeal?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That would be correct, yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Let me switch you back over.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Okay.
MS. DUGAN: So where we left off yesterday, we went through some of the emails showing Donna Adelson's involvement in the divorce, text messages showing her venting to Charlie Adelson about the divorce.
MS. DUGAN: Are you familiar with Luis Rivera's statements to law enforcement in 2016 after his arrest that he and Garcia traveled to Tallahassee not only in the month of July of 2014 to kill Dan Markel, but also made an additional trip in the month of June of 2014?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: And were you able to corroborate that from the phone records?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, we were.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, so now I want to go in chronological order then, from the start of the June trip all the way through the July trip when Dan Markel was murdered. How did Garcia and Rivera get to Tallahassee for the June trip?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: In a rental vehicle.
MS. DUGAN: And were we able to find the rental contract for that vehicle?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We were, yes.
MS. DUGAN: All right, can you show that to us?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. So this is slide 107. I'm referencing here a rental contract from Comfort rental car in Miami, and again, yes, this would be the vehicle that was rented to come to Tallahassee for the June trip.
MS. DUGAN: What date was the car rented?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So looking at the details here, we can see the date out — and I'm looking to the right side of the screen here — is June 2nd of '14, and we see at the bottom here the vehicle is due back on, uh, 6/5, or June 5th of '14.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, so it was a three-day rental then?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: About what time on June 2nd was it rented?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Well, presuming the 24-hour rental period — as it is due back at 8:50 p.m. — then it would have been rented around 8:50 p.m. on the 2nd.
MS. DUGAN: 8:50 p.m. on the 2nd?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, what type of car did Garcia rent for this first trip to Tallahassee in June?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Again, looking to the right here of slide 107, it is a silver Nissan Altima.
MS. DUGAN: And the contract was signed by Garcia?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That is correct.
MS. DUGAN: Does Luis Rivera's name appear anywhere on that contract?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It does not.
MS. DUGAN: Are there any phone records to show how this rental car was picked up?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Did you get location information from Magbanua's records that night that helped shed some light on that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We did. And this may be the time to point out: for Mr. Garcia, his carrier was Metro PCS, kind of transitioning into T-Mobile at that time.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: And we were unable to obtain location records for his handset for the June trip. We do have location information for Ms. Magbanua and for Luis Rivera, but we do not have any records with location for Mr. Garcia for this particular time frame. Okay, so what do we see here? So what we see here is just a map depicting Ms. Magbanua's residence at the time and the location of the Comfort rental car near the airport here.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: And as I progress to slide 109, this is representing the cell sites that Ms. Magbanua's handset communicated with the evening of June 2nd. And we can see on the right-hand side of this, around 8:25 p.m., her handset was communicating with a cell site that would be near her residence.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: At 8:34 she's now communicating with a cell site further to the west, and then we see at 8:53 through 8:58 she's communicating with a cell site that would be servicing the area of the airport, or Comfort rental car, and this will be consistent with her handset traveling from her residence to the area of Comfort rental car.
MS. DUGAN: And would that put her cell phone then consistent with Comfort rental car around the same time that Garcia is renting that car, if there's 24-hour rental periods with that contract?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. And we see here, slide 110, again we're depicting the particular sector that her handset was using by the large red arrow, and we can see that that sector would specifically be consistent with servicing the Comfort rental car. We see she has events from 8:53 through 8:58 on that particular cell site and sector, and as we recall, the rental contract vehicle was due back at 8:50.
MS. DUGAN: Does she stay in that area for a while, or does she kind of immediately return back to her residence?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So what we see next — we saw those events through 8:58, and then we have an event at 9:17, and then another event — we see to the right, this is slide 111, to the right side we see cell sites at 9:43 and 10:01, which would be consistent with her returning to her residence. So she does stay in the area of Comfort for a short period of time.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Did you look at her records to see who she was talking to during this trip to the car rental and back?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, who is she talking — okay, I'm sorry, what do we see here?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So this is a summary of the call detail records. Previously we saw the actual raw records as they come from AT&T; we saw that there was a lot of information on the page. So with our analytical software we're able to produce these summaries, which allow us to assign names, we can convert the date and time to our local time, and it just makes it easier to read those call detail records. So this is just a summary of the calls for the subjects that you see here for the evening of June 2nd around the time of this rental car.
MS. DUGAN: So who is she talking to on the way to Comfort rental?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: GEICO — the 800 number that returns to GEICO insurance.
MS. DUGAN: And is that the first line up on the call detail records we see?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It is, yes.
MS. DUGAN: And does GEICO insurance sell car insurance?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They do.
MS. DUGAN: Now, obviously we see some of the co-conspirators talking to each other here on the call detail records. Do we expect most of these co-conspirators to be talking to each other on a daily basis, given that some of them are family members, some of them are dating — they have relationships outside of this crime?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Certainly.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Are you going to be walking us through in your presentation today certain time periods of communication between the parties that stood out in this investigation?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: What causes a particular period of time to stand out?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: The particular times of interest would be those that overlap with physical events or specific events in the crime, in the conspiracy of the crime. So this is the evening of the renting of the vehicle that Mr. Garcia and Mr. Rivera are going to drive to Tallahassee in to commit the homicide. So this seems, in the scheme of things, to my understanding, the first kind of physical doing act of this homicide. And so that would be a relevant time frame to look at.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. All right. So using a timeline, can you walk us through the communication between the parties for this particular significant time — this first car rental for the first trip to Tallahassee for the murder of Dan Markel?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. And so using the timeline, we will kind of look at what's happening as far as Ms. Magbanua travels compared to who she's communicating with when. And this is taken from that same exact summary that we just saw, but as I move on here, we see that in the time frame we saw the cell sites of her traveling to the area of Comfort rental car — between approximately 8:25 and 8:53 p.m. is when we see that she has the phone call to GEICO.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Was she talking to Garcia at all during that drive to the Comfort rental area?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: She does not have any communications with Mr. Garcia during this time frame.
MS. DUGAN: Since they don't have communications with each other, could that be consistent with her giving him a ride to the car rental, since he is the person who rented the car at that time?
JUDGE EVERETT: The projection artist may testify based on his analysis of these records.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It is certainly consistent, when we don't see communications between two parties, that they could in fact be together and have no need to actually call one another.
MS. DUGAN: They could just not be together and also not talking to each other.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: All right. But the reason that this could be consistent with her giving him a ride there is because once she's consistent with that area, it seems that that's the time that the car is being rented.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That is correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Now, who attempts to call Katherine Magbanua once she is consistent with Comfort rental, dropping off Garcia?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So again, at the time frame, her handset will be consistent with the area of Comfort rental. We see an incoming call from Charlie Adelson at 8:57 p.m.
MS. DUGAN: After Magbanua — if she has dropped off Garcia at this point to rent the car, and this car ends up obviously being the one that is driven to Tallahassee to kill Dan Markel — who did she call on the phone at this point after Garcia has been dropped off?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So again, from her cell sites, we saw she had an event at 9:17, which was kind of the first indication that she was moving away from the area of Comfort rental car. And what we see is that at 9:17:58 she places an outbound call to Charlie Adelson.
MS. DUGAN: So as soon as she's no longer in the area of Comfort rental, she's calling Charlie Adelson.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: How long is that conversation?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: A little over 25 minutes.
MS. DUGAN: What time do they get off the phone?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Approximately 9:43 p.m.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, 9:43 and about 25 seconds, it looks like.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Right after Charlie Adelson hangs up with Katherine Magbanua at 9:43 and 25 seconds, who does he call less than a minute later?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Charlie calls the Adelson residence.
MS. DUGAN: Adelson residence — what do you mean by that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: The home phone or landline phone for Donna and Harvey Adelson.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, so this is a landline that presumably they would both use, that's located in their house.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And how long does that conversation between Charlie and the Adelson residence last?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Also just over 25 minutes.
MS. DUGAN: Who does Katherine Magbanua call once she is back in the area of her home?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: What we see in just after 10, she calls, texts — there's a few communications back and forth here with Sigfredo.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Do Harvey Adelson and Charlie Adelson then talk on their cell phones that night?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. There are two calls, and we can see at 10:16 that Harvey Adelson calls Charlie Adelson; at 10:27 Charlie Adelson calls Harvey Adelson.
MS. DUGAN: So this is Charlie and Harvey talking on Harvey's cell phone, is that right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Does Charlie Adelson call or receive calls or messages from Donna Adelson's cell phone that night?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Uh, not that night, no.
MS. DUGAN: So if Charlie Adelson talked to Donna Adelson on the phone that night, then it would have been that 25-minute call to the landline right after he hung up with Katherine Magbanua. Is that right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Right. That was definitively saying what did or did not occur, what might have been possible.
JUDGE EVERETT: You may continue.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So, yes, it is possible that he spoke to Donna, and that would have been on that landline call.
MS. DUGAN: Because then he talks to Harvey on Harvey's cell phone later that night.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: Can you walk us through any other calls or texts between any co-conspirators that night?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So we see an additional text between Katherine and Sigfredo, and then Katherine calls Charlie again at 10:41 p.m. —for about a 23-minute phone call.
MS. DUGAN: Are you familiar with— I want to go back to this landline call. Do you mind going back to the slide right before this?
MS. DUGAN: Are you familiar with statements by Charlie Adelson from the 2016 wiretap in this case that we'll hear beginning later today, where Charlie Adelson tells people on his cell phone that he'll call them back on a landline?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: As someone who's familiar with technical operations of law enforcement and wiretapping, is there a perception that talking on a landline is safer than talking on a cell phone?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, I think that may be a perception.
MS. DUGAN: Does Charlie Adelson most often talk to Donna Adelson and Harvey Adelson on their cell phones or on the landline?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Most frequently on their cell phones.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, but we see that after he gets off with Katherine Magbanua that night, he does call the landline.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And this is right after the car is rented — the rental car.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: All right. What percentage of total communication does Charlie Adelson have with Donna and Harvey to their landline?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I'll have to move forward here just a little bit. We had talked about the call from Katherine to Charlie; there's a final call or some communication between Ms. Magbanua, Mr. Sigfredo Garcia later that evening of the second. And then to get to your question — this is slide 122 — just to break down: I'm looking at Charlie Adelson's communication records and trying to eliminate all the duplicate events that we saw previously where one phone call may make three events in the record, so trying to whittle all those down. What we see in this time period between May of 2014 through August of 2015 is 28 communications with the landline and 1,378 with the combined cell phones of Harvey and Donna Adelson. So a little under two percent of the calls to the residence.
MS. DUGAN: So during that a little-over-a-year time span, he only has 28 calls ever with Donna and Harvey's landline, is that right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: And one of those is that 25-minute call right after Magbanua would have dropped Garcia off to have the car rented.
MS. DUGAN: That's correct. Are you familiar with Rivera's statement that he did not participate in the car rental for the June trip to Tallahassee?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Were you able to corroborate that with the phone records?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. So looking at slide 123, we see Mr. Rivera — his cell sites are in the blue, listed by the blue dots here. We see that his cell sites are consistent with the area of his residence and a significant distance away from the Comfort rental car.
MS. DUGAN: Do we have any other evidence that shows who rented the car for this June trip to Tallahassee on June 2nd?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: What's this?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So there was a citation issued to Mr. Garcia driving that rental vehicle, that Nissan that we saw from the rental contract at Comfort. And this is the evening of June 2nd.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And what time did he receive this traffic ticket?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: 9:48 p.m.
MS. DUGAN: So would this have been approximately an hour after 8:50 p.m.? —and about an hour after, or about maybe 45 minutes I guess, after Katherine Magbanua was leaving the Comfort rental area?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And what kind of car was he in when he received his traffic ticket?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It is a four-door silver Nissan.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. So it seems as if as soon as he rented that vehicle, within an hour he's getting a traffic ticket in the vehicle.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: And are you familiar with Jeffrey Lacasse's statement that he drove a silver Nissan sedan at the time that this happened?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Now this traffic ticket that Garcia received — this would have created a record in law enforcement databases that he was in possession of this Nissan silver sedan, right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: So after he got this traffic ticket, what did he do?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Well, what we saw was an additional Comfort rental contract where it would appear that he returned the Nissan and obtained a different vehicle.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So this is slide 125, and we can see that on June 3rd he now has a blue Hyundai Sonata.
MS. DUGAN: And does Rivera's name appear anywhere on that rental contract?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It does not.
MS. DUGAN: All right, and that's on June 3rd, you said?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: So what can you tell us about the travel of Mr. Rivera's handset on June 4th of 2014?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So what we see again, just looking at Mr. Rivera's cell sites represented in blue here, we can see that in the early morning hours of the 4th, on the lower right hand of slide 127, here we can see he has activity in the Miami area. And as time progresses through the early morning hours until just afternoon, he continues to communicate with cell sites that would be consistent with travel from the Miami area to Tallahassee.
MS. DUGAN: And are you familiar with Rivera's statement that he and Garcia did surveillance of Dan Markel at a park near Dan Markel's home during that trip?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Was his phone ever consistent with being in a park near Dan Markel's home on Trescott Drive?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. And slide 129 here — we see that again the blue dot representing Mr. Rivera's cell site usage is close to Mr. Markel's residence, which is indicated here on the top right by the flag and the address of Trescott Drive.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: And in addition to his cell site location, we talked previously about having some GPS information from the rental vehicle, and we can see by the square icon there that there is a GPS location for the rental vehicle, again, in close proximity — and actually at, I believe, that's Winthrop Park there.
MS. DUGAN: And if they're located right there where that blue square is on the map and the killers are familiar with the type of car that Dan Markel drives, would they be able to see his ingress and egress from Trescott Drive onto Benton Road?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They should be able to see him passing on Benton Road, yes.
MS. DUGAN: After this GPS ping near Markel's home, where does Rivera travel at that point?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: What we see in the next slide, 130 here, is that immediately after that, we see the cell site usage starting at the top around 3:25 p.m. and continuing through until the late evening hours of the 5th, would be consistent with traveling back to the Miami area.
MS. DUGAN: Does he get back in — it looks like the early morning hours of June 6?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: Close to 12:47 a.m.?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Now, did you look at the communication between all the co-conspirators during this trip to Tallahassee to see if there was any opportunity for information to be relayed?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So what we see again, from the time of the rental car on the second, the second through the fourth — again to answer the question, "Is there an opportunity for communications to occur between these subjects?" — this again is another summary of the call detail records just showing the communications between, again, the primary subjects of the investigation.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And how much were they talking?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So in that time frame, if we go back to kind of our organization here and split out, we can see just in numbers of communications or attempted communications — these may be text messages, calls, but just records of communications or attempts — we see that there are a number between Donna Adelson and Charlie Adelson, between Charlie Adelson and Katherine Magbanua, and between Magbanua and Garcia. And then as that continues, so for the total number of communications, we can see those between each of the subjects.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And is Katherine Magbanua the only one who is talking to Garcia or Rivera during that trip on this chart?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: And is Charlie Adelson the only Adelson family member who talks to Katherine Magbanua?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: And do Donna Adelson and Charlie Adelson also have communication or attempted communication — I'm sorry, do Donna Adelson and Charlie Adelson also have communication or attempted communication?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Um, now going next to June 7th, which would be the day after the killers arrived back in Miami without having killed Dan Markel on this trip.
MS. DUGAN: Earlier in the presentation, yesterday, right before we broke in the afternoon, we saw — we're back in March of 2014.
MS. DUGAN: Donna Adelson tells Charlie Adelson she has to talk to him about something private while she's on the road on the way to Gainesville, and says to erase this text. Do you remember that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do, yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And then a few minutes after she sends that message, she says the subject of the private call is going to be about Dad's birthday.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Dad's birthday gift, actually. Is that right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: And she does not tell him to erase that text where she's saying the subject of the private call.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: Now, in June, specifically on June 7th, did Donna Adelson and Charlie Adelson exchange texts about this birthday present for Harvey Adelson again?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. So slide 137 — we see two chats between Charlie Adelson and Donna Adelson, where Charlie indicates, "Okay, have fun, still working on Dad's B-day present." And Donna Adelson responds, "I know it's a tough B-day, being 70 and all, but I know you'll come through."
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And this "still working on Dad's B-day present" would be the day after the killers arrived back in Miami without having killed Dan Markel.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And this birthday present was mentioned back in March. Would that be about four months before Harvey Adelson's birthday?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: All right. Going forward to July 3rd — was there an e-vite to Harvey Adelson's birthday sent to Wendi Adelson that day?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. A reminder email that was sent on July 3rd.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And when is the party?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So as we see, kind of focusing in here on the details of this email — the party, a friendly reminder that "Donna's event is coming up on Saturday, July 5th, 2014 at 7:30 p.m."
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And was it addressed to Wendi — and we've blurred out their names — but her two sons, and listed Wendi and her two sons' last name as Adelson?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Was Dan Markel still alive on July 5th of 2014?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: He was.
MS. DUGAN: And what last name — or, Adelson — that was listed as the boy's last name here when this is sent? And I'm sorry — Adelson is listed as the boys' last name though, regardless of the fact that Dan Markel is still alive on this date?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: And this was about two weeks before Dan Markel was killed?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Now Donna is listed as the host here, but was there further evidence in the records that Donna Adelson was not only the host but was also the person who sent these e-vites?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, can you tell us about that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There was at least one other email from the donnaharvey@gmail account to Evite inquiring about whether the e-vites had been sent. The title of the email, I believe, is "Have my 14 invitations been sent?"
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: She's following up. It is signed by Donna Adelson, following up on whether those e-vites have actually gone out. And it indicates that basically she's unfamiliar with the process but she had listed the attendees under the contact section on their form.
MS. DUGAN: So she's the one that's listing the invitees for the contacts for e-vite?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: For that email, yes.
MS. DUGAN: And checking to make sure the invitations did get sent through the e-vite service?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: And does she also send a message to another person saying, "Did you get the e-vite? Did you get my e-vite?"
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: All right, I want to move on to then a couple of days later, July 6th. So would this be the day after the party?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. What message was found in the Cellebrite of Wendi Adelson's cell phone on July 6th?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So this is slide 142. There is a text message from Wendi Adelson to Dan Markel asking if he is in Tallahassee for the dates of July 14th through the 18th. And she says she wants to know because she wants to know if she can have the kids on the 16th.
MS. DUGAN: Correct. And he replies, "Yes, you can"?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: So chronologically this would have occurred after the trip to Tallahassee in June by the killers, but before the July trip to Tallahassee when Dan Markel was actually murdered.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Now, the dates that Wendi Adelson is asking Dan Markel about — what is significant about those dates? What happened on July 15th?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Those dates encompass the rental car and the trip to Tallahassee and ultimately Mr. Markel's death.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, so July 15th was the day that the killers rented the car to come to Tallahassee?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: And then they were in Tallahassee from the 16th through the 18th?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: With Dan Markel being killed on the 18th?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: And where was Wendi Adelson when she sent this message? So — oh, thank you. Let me — let me ask you about this. Was there already a schedule in place as to who would have the kids during those dates that Wendi Adelson asked Dan Markel about?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, there was. So this is an email from Wendi Adelson's Gmail account referencing the schedule for the children for this particular time, and we can see in the email that Mr. Markel is listed to have the children the 11th through the 17th.
MS. DUGAN: And the date she was asking about is the 16th?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: And in the top of that email, does it say that she gets the kids every Wednesday anyway?
MS. DUGAN: That she has the children every Wednesday anyway?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yeah, on the last sentence: "I imagine you'll have the chance to have them on Wednesday nights during the weeks in May, June, and July."
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes — that she would imagine to have the chance.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. So what she was asking about seems to already be established in this schedule that was already established in January, seven months earlier — correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: All right. So where was Wendi Adelson when she sent the message to find out whether Dan Markel would be in town that week?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So that message was sent in the morning of the 6th, and the closest cell site or event we have a location — She's communicating with a cell site in South Miami, Miami Beach, that would be consistent with the Continuum.
MS. DUGAN: And the Continuum was the residence of Harvey and Donna Adelson at the time?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: And this would be the day after the birthday party?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: All right, what did Wendi Adelson do after sending that message?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So this is slide 146. There is a calendar entry which created an event for July 7th of 2014, which indicates "cancel cable and get Apple ID and Netflix instead."
MS. DUGAN: Okay, obviously this is something a lot of people do, right? Cancel cable and end up getting streaming services?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: All right, but you can stream from anywhere, right? Is that one of the perks of having streaming over cable?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It would be one of the perks, yes.
MS. DUGAN: Cable's typically — especially back in 2014 — was maybe confined to a more fixed spot, like a home?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: And this was on July 7th, then — so was Wendi Adelson still living at the Opera Ridge Drive in Tallahassee at that time?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: But by the following month, she had relocated to Miami and was no longer in that home.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: Correct. All right, moving on to July 11th — what do we see on July 11th?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So on July 11th — again, I'm on slide 148 — this is an email from Donna Sue, the donna.harvey Gmail, to Wendi Adelson regarding a Best Buy service for the television.
MS. DUGAN: And what does it say?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It says, "If you can't keep Friday, July 18th between 8 a.m. and noon, call to reschedule."
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It states, "We took this — the contract we took out is repair in-house if possible; if not possible, they will take it, no charge."
MS. DUGAN: And here, "dad" is being referred to in the third person — contract is under Harvey Adelson with dad's cell phone number?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And it's from Donna Sue at the top —
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: "If they need the purchaser, that's my name with my cell phone number," it says — is that right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: And what does Donna Sue say? "The contract is repair in-house if possible; if not possible, they'll take it out at no charge" — is that right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: All — right, did you find any more information, besides this email from Donna, about this TV repair that was supposed to take place on the morning of July 18th regarding the Best Buy repair?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I mean, we know that it occurred — that technicians came to the house that morning.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And was there also emails or messages about the TV being in Harvey Adelson's name, as it says here — I guess just consistent with this, some Best Buy documents that were consistent with the contract being under Harvey Adelson's name, that Donna is then communicating to Wendi?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, thank you.
MS. DUGAN: All right, moving on to July 14th.
MS. DUGAN: Was this the night before the car rental for the killer's July trip to Tallahassee?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: All right, were Charlie Adelson and Magbanua together that night?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Uh, they were, yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, and how do we know?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We have communication. So then again, this is slide 151 — a summary of communications between Ms. Magbanua, Charlie Adelson, and Sigfredo Garcia. We see some voice activity and a text between them, and then we also have text messages recovered from Mr. Adelson's iCloud account that kind of go along with these. So we see that there is a phone call from Mr. Adelson at 8:53 p.m., and then we find the text message chat that says, "Just tried calling you," at 8:56.
MS. DUGAN: And do they appear to meet, as far as their phone locations are concerned?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. So this continues on. Ms. Magbanua basically indicates for Mr. Adelson to come down to her location — she lived south of him in South Florida.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: He responds, or updates, with an ETA of five minutes.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: And then he, again, updates his location as he's getting closer. We see here on slide 153, at 9:27 p.m., Mr. Adelson has an event with a cell site consistent with Ms. Magbanua's residence.
MS. DUGAN: And after leaving the area of Magbanua's residence that night, does Magbanua contact Garcia?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: She does, yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, so what do we see here?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Uh, so this would be after Mr. Adelson was in the area of her residence. We see events after midnight — 12:42 a.m. and 1 a.m. — that would be consistent with him leaving that area and potentially returning to his home.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And can you tell me about the communication after that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I can.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So what we see July 15th is the rental of the Prius.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: And to your point, again — and I'll stop here real quick — this is just another summary of the events between our primary subjects.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: And I'll highlight some of these as we talk about them. So these are events from the early-morning hours of, or the morning of, the rental vehicle. And yes, we see that Ms. Magbanua makes a number of outgoing calls to Mr. Garcia between 12:48 a.m. and 1:56 a.m.
MS. DUGAN: And who does Garcia call first thing in the morning?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Well, one of his first calls in the morning is to Comfort Rental Car.
MS. DUGAN: And that was the same rental car that he used for the June trip to Tallahassee?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. But also the same one where he had to rent the second car — used the same service again?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: All right. Now, did he end up calling another rental car company a little later in the day?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. As we again look at the calls throughout the day, we see that at 4:28 p.m. he makes an outgoing call to Save Gas, or Hybrid Rental — another rental car agency.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And were we able to — now, throughout that day, when he's calling Comfort and then calling Hybrid, are he and Luis Rivera in communication?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: And are he and Magbanua in communication?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: All right, was law enforcement able to find a rental agreement from Save Gas?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We were. As we look at the rest of the call details summary, we see here at the bottom — this is slide 160 — that there is communication at just after 6 p.m. between Mr. Garcia and Mr. Rivera. And as asked, we were able to locate the rental agreement for Hybrid Rental, and what we see is at 6:15 p.m. is the time-out for this vehicle. We see that they rented the Toyota Prius.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, and who rented the Prius?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It's in the name of Luis Rivera.
MS. DUGAN: And whose number is listed at the top under the name "brother"?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Mr. Garcia's.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, and were their locations also consistent with Save Gas?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. If we look at both Mr. Garcia's and Mr. Rivera's cell-site locations, they are consistent with the area of the Save Gas, or Hybrid Rental.
MS. DUGAN: All right. Right after this car is rented, around 6:15 — this car that is the car that's going to make this final trip to Tallahassee to kill Dan Markel — are Magbanua and Charlie Adelson playing phone tag around that time?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: And did they finally talk on the phone about 15 minutes later, at around 6:30?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. So again, we're now looking at a call-detail summary. This is slide 163, that shows the communication between them — our subjects — the evening of the 15th. We saw the communication between Mr. Garcia and Mr. Rivera just prior to the rental-car pickup.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: As you mentioned, there is an attempt between Ms. Magbanua and Charlie Adelson. We see there's very short-duration calls.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: And then at 6:36 p.m. there is a 10-minute phone call between Charlie Adelson and Katherine Magbanua.
MS. DUGAN: After that call — the 10-minute call with Magbanua — who does Charlie Adelson call within, I guess, about an hour or so after this car is rented and after he talks to Magbanua?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So we can see that starting at 7:30, Charlie Adelson calls the Adelson residence — the Donna and Harvey Adelson residence — for a 22-minute phone call, and then again at 7:54 p.m. for an 11-minute phone call.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, so 22 minutes and then 11 minutes. Charlie Adelson calls the landline that night.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Do the phone records show us which parent he may have been talking to on the landline at that time?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We know that there is a phone call from Harvey Adelson's cell phone to the residence later on, so he would have not been at the residence later on in the evening. At this time, there's no indication.
MS. DUGAN: And can you walk us through that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I can.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So this is 8:06 p.m. We see the call from Harvey Adelson to the Adelson residence — about a 12-minute phone call.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, and that would have been — is that about — the last phone call from Charlie Adelson to the Adelson residence was at 7:54 p.m.?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: And they talked for 11 minutes?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, so at that point it's going to be about — is that 8:05 when they get off the phone?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Approximately, yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, and then who calls the Adelson residence at 8:06?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Harvey Adelson.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, so it was one minute later that he called the Adelson residence?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: So would that be consistent with Charlie Adelson talking to Donna Adelson at the residence, since Harvey Adelson wouldn't be calling himself at the Adelson residence one minute later?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It could be, yes.
MS. DUGAN: Earlier we talked about how rare it is that Charlie Adelson calls his parents' landline — he only calls 28 times total, in I think it was around 15 months in your time span around the time of this murder. So we saw, during the June car rental, there was one call to the landline — is that right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: And for this car rental there's two calls right after — the landline, is that right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Sorry — two calls to the landline right after the car rental, is that right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Thank you. So three total of those 28 were right after these cars were rented?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Um, next — where did Garcia go after the car was rented?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Well, you have your fourth call to the residence.
MS. DUGAN: Thank you. At 8:20 p.m.?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Okay, uh — again, Charlie Adelson calling the residence for a 10-minute phone call.
MS. DUGAN: All right, so four total of the 28, then?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct — around the time of the car rentals.
MS. DUGAN: All right, what do we have next?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So on the 15th continuing, we see that there is a number of communications. This again is after the time of the rental car — there's a number of communications or attempts between Ms. Magbanua and Mr. Garcia. Those continue through the evening, and they end about 9:30 p.m. This is slide 172. If we look at the locations — slide 173 — again, all of those attempts to reach each other ended at 9:30, and we can see that beginning at 9:30, Mr. Garcia's cell-site locations would be consistent with the area of Ms. Magbanua's residence.
MS. DUGAN: Did Garcia and Rivera's phones appear to leave the Miami area then the following day, July 16th of 2014?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. And I'll point out also, on this slide, in addition to the cell-site locations, we did have a GPS location for the rental vehicle — which we can also see here on the map by the blue square icon — that the rental vehicle, in addition to Mr. Garcia's cell sites, but the rental vehicle location would be consistent with Magbanua's residence as well.
MS. DUGAN: So just like we saw on the June trip, the cell sites that we're getting from the cell records are lining up and are consistent with the Spireon GPS records from these rental cars?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Can you walk us through the travel of the cell phones on July 16th?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. So we see, again, slide 175 here, we have cell site locations for this trip for both Mr. Garcia and Mr. Rivera, and we can see that they're consistent with leaving the South Florida area in the early afternoon of July 16th. And as we see through both of their cell site usages, as we continue kind of up through this map, we can see they reach the Tallahassee area in the early morning hours of the 17th.
MS. DUGAN: Now, on the 17th, are they ever consistent with being near the Markel residence on Trescott Drive?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, we do see here that both Mr. Garcia and Mr. Rivera have cell site and sector usage that will be consistent with Mr. Markel's residence, and this is on July 17th in the late morning to early afternoon hours.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And that cell site, is that right near Winthrop Park where we saw them in the last for the June trip?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: I wanted to ask you one more thing about the June trip. Law enforcement didn't know about this June trip before Louis Rivera informed them there was actually another trip to Tallahassee, is that right? Did law enforcement know about the June trip before Louis Rivera's statement?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Not that I'm aware of.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And so once we found out about the June trip, were we able to get Rivera's records? And Rivera had records that showed his locations for both June and July?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: But Garcia's records had locations for July, but because it had been so long since this trip, they didn't have locations for June anymore, is that correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It wasn't the delay in getting the records, it was the transition of the companies that those records were unfortunately not available to us.
MS. DUGAN: Thank you. Okay. So we just talked about their locations were consistent with being near Markel's home on July 17th. Are you able to show us the communication on the call detail records between all the co-conspirators on the 16th and 17th during this trip to Tallahassee?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. So again, should be slide 179. We are looking at another summary of the communications between the subjects, and this spans July 16th in the morning through the early morning hours of July 18th.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And do we have the same pattern here where Magbanua was the only one contacting Garcia and Rivera, and Charlie is the only Adelson talking to Magbanua?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Well, that's correct. If we go back to kind of the tally of communications, again, we can see the highest number of communications between Charlie Adelson and Katherine Magbanua, between Magbanua and Garcia, and then as the others have communications as well.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And these communications, they also cover attempted communications, is that right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And some of these communications may be texts, some may be calls, some may be mundane — some of these people have relationships anyway. We're just showing all the communications or attempted communications that did take place.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. All right. So I want to focus on the night before Dan Markel's murder, late that night, using a timeline. Can you walk us through the communication that evening on July 17th going into the early morning hours of July 18th?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. So again, kind of the same format here, we see — this is slide 185 — we see calls between Charlie Adelson and Donna Adelson at 10:18 and 10:29, both of them for just over four minutes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And what's next?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We see at about 11:40 there is communication between Mr. Garcia and Ms. Magbanua.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And what happens after that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Additional communications between Katherine and Sigfredo, and then Charlie calls Katherine just after midnight.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And is there any more for that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There is. We see that Ms. Magbanua calls Charlie again at 12:34 a.m. for a short-duration call, and then Charlie calls her back at 1:03 a.m.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And then Charlie calls Donna at 1:02 a.m. Was there no duration on that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: No duration on that.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. All right. So then moving on to later that morning, which is going to be the morning of July 18th when Dan Markel was murdered, what can you tell us about all the co-conspirators' communications that morning between 8 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So again, another call detail summary between those subjects. Here, slide 192, we're referencing the time when the shooting of Mr. Markel occurred.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: And in combination with the iCloud return with text message content and the forensic examination of Wendi Adelson's phone, the communication records from the carriers, we kind of have a more complete idea of the communications between these persons the morning of the 18th.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And the yellow line there shows what time in the call detail records the homicide occurred?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Can you walk us through all the cell phone evidence that morning?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So again, just looking at the communications between our primary subjects, Wendi had the calendar event for 8 a.m. for "fix TV."
MS. DUGAN: And I want to ask you about that. Did she often have calendar events in her phone?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: She did, yes.
MS. DUGAN: And she would often delete those events, correct? All right, when was this calendar event deleted?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do not know.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Was it when she was with law enforcement the afternoon of July 18th? Did they take her phone and run a Cellebrite report on it?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. So this extraction occurred in the late evening hours of July 18th.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And in the Cellebrite, it would have shown that the calendar event was deleted, is that right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: So would she have had to have deleted it before her cell phone was Cellebrited that evening?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. So sometime between 8 a.m. when the event is on her phone and that evening, it was deleted?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It could have been deleted before that date.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. All right. So first call to Donna Adelson and Wendi Adelson — can you show that to us?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. So again, we see at 8:09 a.m. there's a call from Wendi to Donna.
MS. DUGAN: Let me ask you one thing from the night before. Was it unusual for Charlie Adelson and Donna Adelson to communicate or attempt to communicate at 1 a.m., that late?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They communicate over a pretty broad range of time. I think it was pretty clear that that event was a misdial that he immediately corrected and called Ms. Magbanua, and that's why there was no duration to it.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, thank you. All right, so moving on to that morning, we saw the calendar event. And then does Donna place the first call that morning between the co-conspirators to Wendi?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Wendi calls Donna. Let's back up. So yes, Wendi actually calls Donna at 8:09.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And what's next?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Donna attempts back at about the same time frame — a little phone tag, maybe.
MS. DUGAN: And then we see a text message from Donna to Wendi again about the Best Buy service, and she says, "They're on their way over now to help with the TV sets in your living room," correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: All right, what's next?
MS. DUGAN: Wendi has a text to Charlie stating, "This is so sweet," and that was deleted, correct? And would that have had to have been deleted before the Cellebrite that afternoon — sometime between when it was received at 8:20 and the Cellebrite that afternoon?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: All right. What's next?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Wendi receives a voicemail from Dan Markel.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And do you have that voicemail where you could play it for us?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I believe so.
MS. DUGAN: What time was that voicemail left for Wendi Adelson?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: 9:04 a.m.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. What happens after that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So Charlie calls Wendi, or attempts to call Wendi, at 9:12.
MS. DUGAN: And that's just — that's 29 seconds?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, what's next?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Wendi texts Dan Markel stating, "The repairman at my house now. I am picking up the boys at 3 p.m., so your swim idea is a no-go today."
MS. DUGAN: So do we know exactly what time she listened to that — was it 9:04?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: 9:04 was the voicemail.
MS. DUGAN: Do we know exactly what time she listened to that 9:04 voicemail?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We do not.
MS. DUGAN: But it seems she would have listened to it before this text at 9:12.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: She does seem to acknowledge the content of the voicemail in this text message reply.
MS. DUGAN: So she heard it sometime between 9:04 and 9:12?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Now, in that message, he mentions he's going to the gym, right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: He did. 9:15.
MS. DUGAN: But from the surveillance videos that we have, by the time he got to the gym at 9:15, were the killers already tailing him?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Appeared to be so, yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And are you familiar with Luis Rivera's statement that they had been tailing him all morning? They followed him from his house to the preschool that morning.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: All right. So can you walk us through these messages starting at 9:12 a.m. that Wendi Adelson has with Dan Markel?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. So again, she indicated that the swim idea was a no-go. Mr. Markel responds about his day ending at 4:30.
MS. DUGAN: Meaning that he gets to keep the boys under the schedule until 4:30.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. As again, in this message he says, "under our schedule," and he continues, "and you had them until 5 last week." This is at 9:13 a.m. Okay. When Ms. Adelson responds, "Because you needed to food shop." This is at 9:15. Mr. Markel replies, "You weren't making them available until 5," and at this point he's already in the Premier parking lot around that time, would that be correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. Wendi responds, "If it was 4:30 last Friday, you should have told me that."
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: "Why tell me now?" This is at 9:19. And also at 9:19, Wendi receives a call from Charlie. Lasts a little over 18 minutes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. So at the point where Dan Markel's already at the gym at 9:19, right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: And the killers have already followed him to the gym at that point, right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: This is per surveillance footage from Premier.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: At this point, Wendi and Charlie have an 18 and 17-second phone conversation.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: An 18-minute and 17-second.
MS. DUGAN: Yes. Okay. What happens next after this phone conversation?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So after the phone call started, Wendi would have received the incoming text, "because I was being nice," and then about the time that phone call would have ended, a Wendi text back.
MS. DUGAN: And does she say, "Nice was fun while it lasted. See you at 4:30 today at my house then"?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: So after this 18-minute phone call with Charlie Adelson, does she seemingly change her stance in the argument? She kind of concedes the argument and agrees with what Dan Markel is asking — he can keep the boys until 4:30.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: And then within about an hour of this message, was Dan Markel killed?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: He was shot, yes.
MS. DUGAN: Shot, thank you.
MS. DUGAN: Walk us through what happens next.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So there are additional communications.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Charlie attempts to call Donna at 9:38.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Charlie attempts to call Katherine at 9:57, return attempt just after, and then Charlie and Katherine talk for almost seven minutes at 9:58.
MS. DUGAN: Okay.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Charlie calls Wendi, 10:06, short duration.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Katherine attempts Charlie again, 10:07, 10:08, the return call at 10:09 for about six minutes.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: And that's the last of the communications prior to the shooting.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Is Charlie also that morning playing phone tag with the attorney representing him in the divorce, Stephen Webster — Dan Markel is — I'm sorry, Dan Markel — thank you. And did Dan Markel have communication where he's playing phone tag with Stephen Webster?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. This is slide 220, and we see from Mr. Markel's records several incoming, outgoing text or voice attempts with Stephen Webster.
MS. DUGAN: And are they basically setting up a time to talk later in the morning?
MS. DUGAN: Have you reviewed the text in these call detail records?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Briefly.
MS. DUGAN: Did it appear that they were setting up a time to talk later that day?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Is the last outgoing communication from Dan Markel 10:34 a.m.?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: And Dan Markel would have been killed within a few minutes of sending that outgoing message, correct? All right.
MS. DUGAN: I want to shift now to the cell phone locations in this case. You walked us through at the beginning of your presentation yesterday Dan Markel's locations on the morning of the murder — Trescott, preschool, gym. What can you tell us about Rivera and Garcia's locations that morning?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So again, as you mentioned, slide 222 — here we see the locations. We know his approximate arrival, the arrival of the Prius into Premier Health and Fitness, just after 9:00 a.m. And what we see now up to slide 224, these are the cell site locations for Mr. Garcia and Mr. Rivera.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Again, Mr. Garcia is in orange, Rivera in blue, but these are the first events with location. We have the morning of the 18th, July 18th, and we see that Mr.— Rivera and Mr. Garcia's locations are both consistent with them being in the area of Premier Health and Fitness.
MS. DUGAN: And what was the last event with location data that we have for them?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: While consistent with Premier gym, it's going to be these that you see here, so 9:58 for Mr. Garcia, 9:46 for Mr. Rivera.
MS. DUGAN: When was their next event with location after these events?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It was afternoon.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, can you walk us through that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I can. We see again Mr.— Markel's vehicle leaving the Premier Health and Fitness, 10:38, the Prius traveling just after. And then we see the location information here — this is slide 227 — and again just looking at the cell site locations, Mr. Garcia's in orange, Rivera's in blue. We see that those events we just saw at Premier Health and Fitness are at the top, and the next event we have, you see, is the 12:30 event for Mr. Garcia where they appear to be on 75 traveling southbound.
MS. DUGAN: So from Tallahassee to around the Gainesville area, there were no events with location?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Could that be consistent with them turning their phones off after they left Premier gym?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It could, yes.
MS. DUGAN: Sometimes when people commit crimes, do they try to turn their phones off during that time?
MR. ZELMAN: Objection, Your Honor. Calls for speculation.
JUDGE EVERETT: Sustained, unless you can lay the foundation for this particular point, Ms. Dugan.
MS. DUGAN: I'll move on, Judge. All right, so let's start at 12:30. Who was the call to at 12:32?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So this is a summary of Mr. Garcia's records for the morning of the 18th, and what we see is his first outgoing call, which happens to be that same event we have with location at 12:30, was to Ms. Magbanua.
MS. DUGAN: Even though the call appears to be a short duration, is there any evidence that it went to voicemail or Magbanua did not answer the call?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There's no evidence it was not received.
MS. DUGAN: What do the phone records indicate about the status of Garcia's phone from the last event at Premier to the time he called Katherine Magbanua at 12:30?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Well, we do see at 12:18 and 12:19, we see two incoming calls that do not create locations, which means they did not actually reach the handset. The handset was not in communication with the network. So we know, at least for those times, that the handset was not, again, in communication with the network — power down, battery dead, however. And then we also see these short codes, this 122 and 129, that are coming into the phone at 12:29. And these are consistent with notifications to the handset about missed calls or voicemails or other things. So those events would be consistent with that phone being powered back on or returning to the network at about that 12:29 timeframe.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And once it comes back on at 12:29, the first call is to Magbanua?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Switching gears here, I want to talk about Wendi Adelson's locations during that morning and early afternoon timeframe when Dan Markel was murdered.
MS. DUGAN: Are you familiar with Wendi Adelson's statement about her locations on the day of Dan Markel's murder and the route that she took on July 18th after her TV repair appointment?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, can you walk us through that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So again, we see her residence here at the time, the Aqua Ridge Way.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: This is slide 230.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Again, just the flag there indicates the area of her residence.
MS. DUGAN: So is Aqua Ridge kind of off Centerville Road north of I-10?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: All right. Based on the location info from her call detail records, can you determine the approximate time she encountered the roadblock on Trescott Drive?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I can, yes. So we also have a receipt from ABC Fine Wine and Spirits that is timestamped at 12:49 p.m. on the 18th. So looking at communication records with location, we see that she begins — ends a voice call at 12:31 p.m. Her cell site is listed as the purple dot and starts at 12:31. We can see — this is slide 232 — as we come down to about the middle here, she has an event at 12:35 or communication during this phone call with a cell site at 12:35, and then that call ends at 12:47. So we see again that would be consistent with her leaving the area of her residence sometime around the 12:31 timeframe and being in the area of — and this 12:47 cell site could be the ABC liquors as well. We know the receipt time is just a couple of minutes later.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So with that, and to slide 233, with that receipt being at 12:49, the voice call ending at 12:47, she would have passed by Mr.— Markel's residence just prior to that.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, meaning maybe somewhere around 12:35 to 12:45?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Did Dan Markel have he and Wendi Adelson's children the morning of July 18th?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I'm sorry?
MS. DUGAN: Did Dan Markel have the children the morning of July 18th and he took them to school that morning?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: He did, yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Looking at Wendi Adelson's call detail records, were you able to see her calls, who they were from and to, and the times on July 18th of 2014?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. So slide 234, a summary of her calls that morning, and we can see in the highlighted sections here calls that would have been made or received after the time that she would have passed by the Markel residence.
MS. DUGAN: When she encountered that roadblock — the crime scene tape with the police cars behind it in front of the Markel residence — did she attempt to call Dan Markel to make sure he or the kids were okay?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: She did not.
MS. DUGAN: Did she attempt to call the children's daycare, Creative Preschool, to make sure that they made it to school and there wasn't some type of incident?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: She did not.
MS. DUGAN: Did she attempt to call 9-1-1 or law enforcement to see what was going on since her children had been staying on that street?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: She did not.
MS. DUGAN: Did she just continue to the liquor store and then on to lunch?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Are you familiar with the area of Thomasville Road and I-10 where the restaurant Mosaic used to be, which was the restaurant she went to lunch at that day?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I am.
MS. DUGAN: Um, were there any liquor stores in that area back in July 2014?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There were, yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, can you walk—
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Thank you. So what we see — slide 237 — again, we are showing the residence, her residence at the time on Aqua Ridge, and her ultimate destination, which was Mosaic off of Thomasville Road. So clearly the next slide here shows, as calculated by the mapping software, the most direct route between those two locations as far as where she was heading.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: And then were there any liquor stores in the area of Mosaic at that time? There were. So at that time there was Publix Liquors on Thomasville Road there, very close to Mosaic. There was Market Square Liquors off Thomasville, and also another ABC location a little further north on Thomasville Road.
MS. DUGAN: Would those Publix and Market Square Liquors be a lot closer to Aqua Ridge and Mosaic than the one she ultimately went to?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They would, and this is slide 242, which shows the route she ended up taking versus what is calculated as the most efficient route.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We can see there's a difference of about nine minutes longer to go the other way.
MS. DUGAN: So she went nine minutes out of the way to go to the ABC Liquors next to Dan Markel's home.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: All right, switching gears again.
MS. DUGAN: July 18th, the last slide that we saw of Garcia and Rivera's locations was around the Gainesville area when the phones were powered back on and the 12:30 call was made by Garcia to Katherine Magbanua. Does the next map show Garcia and Rivera continuing to come back down to the Miami area?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, we do see here — slide 244 — as another large timeframe without location information, but we see in the late afternoon, early evening hours the use on the phones returns and we see that they are getting into the South Florida area.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, once back in Miami, did they stop somewhere where they were caught on video?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, so we have an ATM withdrawal from Mr. Rivera. We can see that that occurred at 6:46 p.m., and through the records we were able to determine the location of that specific ATM where that transaction occurred in Pembroke Pines.
MS. DUGAN: Okay.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So slide 247 shows the location of the ATM by the yellow flag in the middle. The — again — blue and orange circles represent the cell sites their handsets were using at the time, and we can see that their locations are consistent with the area of that ATM around the time of that transaction.
MS. DUGAN: All right, um, moving on to July 18th, um, okay, thank you. So from that ATM, there were also surveillance images obtained of Mr. Rivera driving, Mr. Garcia in the passenger seat, and again of the green Prius. And then, after that, was Garcia in communication with Katherine Magbanua that evening?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Was Magbanua also in communication with her friend Yindra Mascaro that, um, evening?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, so here again, slide 250 is the summary of the communications that afternoon and evening, and we can highlight here several communications between Ms. Magbanua and Mr. Garcia.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: And in addition to those, we do see communications between Ms. Magbanua and Ms. Mascaro.
MS. DUGAN: And was there evidence that Magbanua went to Rivera's house to meet up with Garcia on the night of July 18th?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There was. As we see again, Ms. Magbanua's cell sites — represented here in red — she has events up to 8:46 that are consistent with the area of her residence, and we can see as we move across the slide here — 253 — events at 9:20 and 9:23 and ultimately 9:42 that will be consistent with her traveling away from the area of her residence and toward the area of Mr. Rivera's residence.
MS. DUGAN: And are you familiar with Magbanua's statement that she dropped her kids off at Yindra Mascaro's residence for the night, that night on the night of July 18th?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: And whose residence is on the way to Rivera's? Ms.—
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Mascaro's.
MS. DUGAN: And is Magbanua then at Rivera's residence by around 9:42 p.m.?
JUDGE EVERETT: I'm sorry — you have a question?
COURT STAFF: Your Honor, there's a question from the jury.
JUDGE EVERETT: I believe— To— to accommodate the issue that we discussed previously at sidebar about scheduling, we'll need to stop this morning at 11:30. But once the jurors come back out, we'll at least get another hour of the testimony in. The— defendant needs to use the restroom. Bailiffs, please. Please take her at this time.
JUDGE EVERETT: You can be seated.
JUDGE EVERETT: Are they good to go?
COURT STAFF: Yes.
JUDGE EVERETT: You— may.
JUDGE EVERETT: Ms. Dugan, you may continue with the examination of Sergeant Corbitt.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, so the night of July 18th, was Katherine Magbanua's cell phone consistent with Rivera's residence by around 9:42 p.m.?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, just after that. We see from, again, the call summary, the last communication between Ms. Magbanua and Mr. Garcia was at 9:46 p.m. And what we see as her events at 9:46 and 9:47 are very consistent with Mr. Rivera's residence. So that kind of coincides with the end of their back-and-forth communication, with her location becoming consistent with Rivera's residence, where Mr. Garcia's location was also consistent.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, and could that be consistent with her communicating with Garcia, that communication ends once she arrives at Rivera's residence, where Garcia and Rivera are also there?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Now, after being there for a little while, does Katherine Magbanua communicate with Charlie Adelson?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: She does, and again, back to the summary, we see that there is an outgoing call from Mr. Adelson at 10:12, very, very short duration. And then Ms. Magbanua calls Mr. Adelson back at 10:20 for about a two-minute phone call.
MS. DUGAN: And tell us about Katherine Magbanua's location for that 10:20 call to Charlie Adelson.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So what we see — the 10:20 and 10:22 — is the last times that her location is consistent with the area around Mr. Rivera's residence.
MS. DUGAN: Were we able to find any other evidence of her and Charlie Adelson's plans for the night of July 18th?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. And again, that was slide 257 we just spoke of. This is communication from Mr. Adelson's iCloud, the afternoon and evening of July 18th, where she asked, "How's work been, Hon?" He says, "Been busy," and then later, "About to start a big case," which she acknowledges.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, and did they discuss their plans for that night?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They did. 8:22 p.m., she texts, "You're still at work?" Mr. Adelson — Charlie Adelson — responds, "Just finishing. I'm not really feeling good. Maybe we can just hang at my house." And that message from him is at 8:23 p.m. to Katherine Magbanua.
MS. DUGAN: That's correct. Okay, and he says he's not feeling good before she comes to his house.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: All right. Um, are you familiar with a call that Wendi Adelson made while at TPD, in front of TPD investigators, to inform Donna Adelson of Dan Markel's shooting?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: And was that call made by Wendi Adelson to Donna Adelson at 7:04 p.m.?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, there were actually two close together there.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, thank you. Which co-conspirator did Donna Adelson call after that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So looking at Donna Adelson's locations and communication, there is a text message from Donna to Charlie, a chat that says, "Call us ASAP."
MS. DUGAN: Okay, and what about after that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So what we see is, looking at the combined location information from both Donna Adelson and Harvey Adelson's cell phones — their locations — we see that they are consistent with leaving the South Miami/South Beach area around or a little before 8 p.m. and beginning to travel north. We see locations here on this slide through about 8:29 p.m. And if we continue, we see events at 8:35 p.m., again in the North Miami area, and then we don't have any other usable events with location until 10:53, at which point they're in the area down here.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, can you go back to just the slide right before this?
MS. DUGAN: Okay, so she receives a call from Wendi Adelson around 7:04 p.m. She's in touch with Charlie Adelson by 7 — or she's attempting to get in contact with him — by around 7:12, and within an hour they are leaving South Beach and headed north in Miami.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: They being Donna Adelson?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: And Harvey Adelson, yes.
MS. DUGAN: And Harvey Adelson, thank you.
MS. DUGAN: All right, so can we go to your next slide?
MS. DUGAN: You said that their last cell phone communication with location data was in North Miami at 8:35 p.m., and their next event with location after that was at 10:53 p.m. Are you familiar with Katherine Magbanua's statement that Charlie Adelson told her that his parents had just been at her home the night of Dan Markel's murder, before she arrived at the home?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Her home or his home?
MS. DUGAN: I'm sorry, his home. Charlie Adelson's home.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Charlie Adelson's parents had just been at Charlie Adelson's home before Magbanua arrived that night.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Is Charlie's home located between the location we see there for the cell site at 8:35 and the location for the cell site at 10:53?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, we see here the location referenced by the flag of where Mr. Adelson's residence was at the time.
MS. DUGAN: Is there evidence in the phone records that Donna Adelson went to Charlie Adelson's home on the night of Dan Markel's murder?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So there is another communication from Ms. Donna Adelson at 8:59 p.m. stating, "Outside your house."
MS. DUGAN: "Outside your house" — and she's sending that message to Charlie Adelson, is that right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: What can you tell us about her locations that night and how long she could have spent at Charlie's residence after sending this message?
MR. ZELMAN: Your Honor, I have to object. Calls for speculation.
JUDGE EVERETT: Overruled. He may answer based on his analysis of the records. However, Sergeant, you are not to speculate or offer any opinions beyond anything that you have not directly researched for these matters. You may answer the question.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, sir. So the question asked of me is, uh, is it possible — given the cell site locations and times — is it possible there was a period of time where Donna and Harvey could have stopped at Charlie Adelson's residence? So to do this analysis, I looked at the events that we had with usable locations, and we see that there is this six-minute phone call. And this is the 8:35 location we saw in the previous slide, but we see this phone call actually begins on the cell site in the bottom of this slide — which should be 263 — and it ends on the cell site at the top. So to conduct an analysis of potential time between points, we need to establish a point to start measuring from. So my estimation of the approximate handset's location between these two cell sites for this phone call is approximately the area of that 8:32 little call-out here in the middle. So that is the point that I started — again, with — based on these two phone-call beginning and ending cell sites, estimated that the handset was approximately in the area of that marker at 8:32.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Same thing for the ending phone call, or the next phone call that we had at 10:53.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We see the cell site that it begins on and the cell site that it ends on a little further north. And so that will be consistent, again, with the handset continuing to travel along the area of the turnpike. And for our ending time here, I again estimated the location of the handset to be where that white call-out box is, at approximately 10:53 p.m. So with those two points and using the Esri route-planning tool — Esri is the mapping software that we use — it tells us that that travel should have taken approximately about an hour and four minutes. And what we see is, between 8:32 and 10:53, is actually two hours and 21 minutes.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So we are — the distance traveled is not consistent with the time consumed.
MS. DUGAN: You spoke about Esri. Is that also how the Department of Transportation estimates mileage as well?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. If you go to the official Department of Transportation site to get mileage for business travel, they use the same software.
MS. DUGAN: What can you determine about when Donna Adelson would have reached Charlie Adelson's residence according to this estimated travel time?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So if we look at this — and again, we see the area of Charlie Adelson's residence.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We have the message at 8:59 that says, "Outside your house."
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Charlie responds to that about 20 minutes later with "10 men" — 10 minutes.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So again, using the same route planning, we see that that should have taken approximately 25 minutes to travel from our 8:32 starting point to Charlie Adelson's residence. And so that would have put the estimated time of arrival at his residence 8:57, and the text message is sent at 8:59. So that would be pretty consistent.
MS. DUGAN: So the text message time is consistent with the estimated time it would take to get from the last known location to his house.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: And in that text message, she says "outside your house" to him.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: And then he gives her an estimated amount of time before he'll be at his house — "10 men."
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: And what we see, looking at Charlie Adelson's locations — the 9:19, when the text message is sent, we can see the cell site that his handset is using.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: As we continue down slide 268, we can see that he has communication at 9:21, and then the next cell site he has — or cell-site time he has — is 9:40, and at that 9:40 time he has become consistent with the area of his residence.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So he reaches his residence sometime between 9:21 and 9:40.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: If we look at the 9:19 time of the text message, that 10 minutes is about correct for when he would arrive home.
MS. DUGAN: So he says — he says he's 10 minutes when he's about 10 minutes away en route to his house?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: After receiving the "outside your house" text, is that right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: And — What do we see here?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: This is just a close-up of that, again showing the cell sites when he would be consistent with his residence, arriving sometime before 9:40.
MS. DUGAN: And where was Donna Adelson's next event with actual location data after she said she was outside Charlie Adelson's house and he responded "10 men"?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Again, the next event that we have is the 10:53 events, looking at their combined records.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It's the next usable location event that we have. So if we look at the time that it would take to travel from Charlie Adelson's residence to that point, we see that based on the route planning, approximately 48 minutes. And again, the actual travel time based on those cell-site usages was an hour and 54 minutes. So we have about an hour of unaccounted-for time.
MS. DUGAN: So it took her an hour and 54 minutes to travel to the 10:53 location from North Miami, which left one hour and six minutes unaccounted for. This would be the travel time from Charlie Adelson's residence to that 10:53 point — did take an hour and 54 minutes, which was estimated to only take 48?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: So how long could she and Charlie Adelson then have overlapped at his house during that time?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Uh, the maximum would be approximately an hour and six minutes. And —
MS. DUGAN: That would be including the time that she would have been waiting for him to arrive?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It would, yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, so let's say she waited 10 minutes or so for him to arrive — actually, he sent it 20 minutes after — after he received the text, right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Charlie's response to Donna was about 20 minutes after she had texted "outside your residence," and that indicates a 10-minute estimated time of arrival. So about 30 minutes would probably be the shortest that she would have waited, but you still have a little over a half hour of overlap.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, thank you. So the total amount of time, one hour six minutes, and they could have spent about 30 minutes or so together during that time at his residence?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Could have, yes.
MS. DUGAN: What else do you know about Donna Adelson's travels that evening?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So we have an additional chat later on.
MS. DUGAN: Does he check back in with her to see if she got there okay?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. At 11:56, Charlie texts, "Did you get to your hotel okay? Love you." She responds, "Thank you for asking. We have it on MapQuest, Hilton Inn on International Drive. We should arrive at 1:25 a.m. Get some rest. We'll talk in the morning." So again, looking at the point of the 10:53 estimated location to the location she states she's going to, we see that should have taken about two hours and 20 minutes, which would have made the arrival time around 1:13. Her stated arrival — estimated arrival — was 1:25.
MS. DUGAN: So again, these are pretty close. So no — no large amount of time unaccounted for during that journey?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: The large amount of time that you have unaccounted for, where she says she's outside Charlie Adelson's house, is from the 8:35 spot to the 10:53 spot?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Did you have an opportunity to do this drive that Donna Adelson took from North Miami to the 10:53 location on the night of July 18th?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I did, yes.
MS. DUGAN: And when did you do that drive?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I did that July 18th of this year.
MS. DUGAN: And was that on a Friday night this year, just as her drive was on a Friday night in 2014?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: And on the same date, July 18th?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct. Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Can you tell us about that drive?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I simply traveled to that area, to the area of that first estimated location at 8:32.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I started an exit south of that so that I was at traveling speed, and I traveled to Charlie Adelson's residence.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I noted the time and mileage that it took me to get there, and then I traveled from Charlie Adelson's residence to the 10:53 spot, just to make sure that the roadways — all of which have not changed — allowed for me to get off the turnpike, get back on, continue travel, and about how long it took me to do it.
MS. DUGAN: Were you able to easily get off the exit for Charlie Adelson's house and then get back on again?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: And was the time it took to drive from Donna Adelson's 8:32 location in North Miami to Charlie Adelson's residence consistent with the estimated time?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It was. I was within just a few minutes, uh —
MS. DUGAN: Ms. Cappleman just reminded me — you said it was on the same day. Did you also do it at the same time of day?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I did, yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, so Friday evening, around between 8:30 and 11.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. Within just a couple of minutes of 8:32 — it was a little hard to gauge my travel time to get to that exact point, might have been off a minute or two when I crossed that specific point, but it was very, very close to the exact time of day.
MS. DUGAN: And was the time it took to drive from Charlie Adelson's residence to her 10:53 location consistent with the estimated time on Esri?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It was, yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. All right, so moving on to the next day, July 19th, if you could walk us through the morning after the murder of Dan Markel — where is Charlie Adelson located at that time?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Charlie Adelson has locations consistent with his residence.
MS. DUGAN: And what can you tell us about the communication from Magbanua's phone that morning?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Uh, I can. So first we looked at her locations, and we recalled that we had that after-10-p.m. cell-site location where she was leaving the area of Mr. Rivera's residence. And actually, the next locations that we have for her is the morning of July 19th. We see again — this is slide 274 — and we can see that her locations beginning at 9:44 would be consistent with her traveling south from the area of Mr. Adelson's residence to the area of either her residence or Mr. Rivera's.
MS. DUGAN: Now, once — or before this 9:44 a.m. call — did she have some calls the night before that were routed to voicemail?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, that were not — they did not reach the phone, yes.
MS. DUGAN: What was her last location, then, before the locations we see here? Was it the, um, 10:20-something location we saw from the night before, when she's leaving Rivera's residence and talking to Charlie Adelson?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And in the text messages between her and Charlie Adelson that night, she was planning to go over to his house that night because he wasn't feeling well.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. So looking at this slide, does it appear that — that her phone has been — the first active location, or the first active event with location we have, she's coming south down from Charlie Adelson's residence that next morning?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Are you familiar with Katherine Magbanua's statement that she spent the night at Charlie Adelson's home — the night of Dan Markel's murder — and the next morning she took the money that he gave her for the murder to the area of Rivera's residence?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Was there evidence of that in the phone records?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So what we see again, back to your initial question as far as the cell phone or the call activity — we're looking at the summary of calls in the morning of July 19th, and we see those events we saw on a map consistent with her travel south. She is attempting to call Mr. Garcia, so we have a number of outgoing calls between 9:44 and 9:46, including a text message where she's trying to reach Mr. Garcia.
MS. DUGAN: When she can't reach Garcia, does she start trying to call some friends of his to try to get a hold of him?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. So immediately after that, at 9:47, she makes an outgoing call to Anthony Ortiz.
MS. DUGAN: Does she also try to call Louis Rivera that morning to find Garcia?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: She did not.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, does the attempted communication with Garcia stop at 10:31 a.m.?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. So again, our first set of calls here, she's trying to reach Mr. Garcia, she's unable to. She calls Mr. Ortiz, and now what we see starting at 9:49, Mr. Ortiz is attempting to call Mr. Garcia, Luis Rivera is now attempting to call Garcia, and it starts this flurry of back-and-forth phone calls with Luis Rivera and Anthony Ortiz trying to find Mr. Garcia or trying to reach Mr. Garcia, and that continues through about 10:20 in the morning.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, so Magbanua was calling Garcia's friend Ortiz, Ortiz is trying to call Garcia, and Ortiz also calls Rivera to try to get a hold of Garcia?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That is correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Eventually, do all of these attempted calls to Garcia stop, and at what point?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Well, they certainly tame down. What we see for the first time is at 10:20 — so we've had this period of time where everyone was trying to reach Mr. Garcia. Catherine Magbanua gets a call from Luis Rivera from his actual primary phone number and they talk for about a minute and 40 seconds. So after that, then we see that Ms. Magbanua communicates with Mr. Rivera a couple of times. She does again try to get hold of Mr. Garcia, but all of that concludes at about 10:30 in the morning.
MS. DUGAN: And was there any evidence as to why there wasn't location data for Garcia that morning and why no one can get a hold of him? Had he dumped his phone? What could you tell from his phone records, the evidence in this case, about why no one could get a hold of Mr. Garcia?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So Mr. Garcia's records indicate that in the early morning hours of the 19th, that phone left the network, was no longer in communication with the network. There are a number of inbound calls that never reach the handset; they do not produce location information or durations. So his phone is not in communication with the network, and that continues through the end of the records. That phone never returns to service, never makes or receives an actual phone call from that morning of the 19th through the duration of the records that we have.
MS. DUGAN: What can you tell us about the locations of Rivera and Magbanua at 10:31 and the time period after that, once all of these attempted communications stop?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So again, we have the flurry of communications. That last call is at 10:31 a.m., and if we look at Ms. Magbanua's locations at 10:31, she is consistent with Rivera's residence, and Mr. Rivera's cell site locations are also consistent with his residence.
MS. DUGAN: Are you familiar with Rivera's statement that he was able to find Garcia that morning at a girl's house and brought him back to Rivera's residence?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Now, when is the next communication on Catherine Magbanua's cell phone after that with location data?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: The next that we see is at 11:23 a.m.
MS. DUGAN: This is about 50 minutes later?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: All right. And is her location at 11:23 a.m. consistent with Mascaro's residence?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It would be consistent with the way to Mascaro's residence.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, thank you. Could this be consistent with her then leaving Rivera's residence after a period of time and heading back towards Mascaro's residence to pick up her children?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It could be, yes.
MS. DUGAN: All right, switching gears again — were you involved in securing a wiretap of some of the suspects in this case back in 2016?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I was.
MS. DUGAN: What is a wiretap?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: A wiretap is an active way for law enforcement to be able to gain information or intelligence. Everything that we've talked about in the historical records are just that — historical. We're getting records that already existed and having those provided to us. A wiretap is an ongoing intercept where we are able to in real time see the calls that are being placed, the outgoing, inbound, durations, all of those things, in addition to the content of most of those — so text message content and voice content. We're actually able to listen to those calls in real time while they're occurring. So this is a real-time, ongoing, active monitoring of the communications.
MS. DUGAN: In order for a wiretap to be in place, does there have to be an order signed by a judge, and that order has to be sent to the phone carrier so that the calls can be monitored by law enforcement?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: Were we able to monitor the content of the calls between the subjects in this case back in the time that these events happened, back in June and July of 2014?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: No. Again, we were investigating after the fact. All of that was historical. The carriers do not retain the content of voice calls; they don't record everything that you say and make it available to us. So we had no option to listen or know the content of those communications back then, outside of what we were covering — text messages.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. So the wiretap in this case is during the investigation, once law enforcement had identified the identity of these subjects and was trying to listen to see whether they talked about the crime.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That is correct. It is prospective. It is ongoing, real time.
MS. DUGAN: All right, can you explain to the jury what type of equipment is needed for a wiretap?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Well, we use a variety of equipment. There is carrier-based equipment — they have equipment that is able to basically mirror those phone calls, that traffic, and provide it to law enforcement. We have equipment, computer servers, that are able to receive that communication and then provide it to monitoring stations, which are essentially laptops.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We have headphones and software that allows us to see this information. It decodes the information that is sent to us from the carrier so we can see in real time. It pops up with the time of the call, the phone numbers, cell site location sometimes, and other information. And if it is a call that has audio, then there's an indication that there's audio and we're able to actually listen to that through the headphones.
MS. DUGAN: Does the software give the listeners — law enforcement — the ability to stop and start the recordings?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It does, yes.
MS. DUGAN: And are synopses of the recordings done by law enforcement?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Is there any involvement by the actual phone carrier, like the company?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There is, yes.
MS. DUGAN: Is monitoring of the calls done live and in real time?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It is.
MS. DUGAN: And do the people who are monitoring these intercepts have to go through a certain type of training in order to do that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They do. They have to go through what we call minimization training. The interception of communications requires that non-relevant communications, or communications that are not pertinent to the actual crimes, be minimized or not listened to. So we call that minimization training, and everyone who listens to or has opportunity to hear any audio from the wire has to go through that training.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And are the people monitoring it also thoroughly briefed on the case?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They are. Part of that training is a requirement to read the affidavit that was authorizing the wiretap and to get a briefing from the case agents so that they know in great detail all the elements of the case, so that they're able to detect during the phone calls if that conversation is actually relevant to some part of the investigation. They need to know financial things, relationships, hierarchy, those kind of things. So again, they are briefed by the case agent and they're required to read the documents.
MS. DUGAN: If the phone conversation is not relevant to the crime, or is privileged in some way, is there a mechanism to stop that recording by law enforcement?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: And is the purpose of that to protect people's privacy if they're not talking about something relevant to the crime?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. The purpose of that is to allow us to minimize those parts of the conversation that are not pertinent to the crime and in compliance with the order.
MS. DUGAN: Is minimization a choice by law enforcement, or are they required to minimize irrelevant portions?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It's a requirement.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Are you limited in time, or is law enforcement who's listening limited in time, in the time that they have to decide whether what they're listening to is relevant to the crime or not?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There are a number of things that go into that. Time is one of them. Yes, we have a guideline for how long we should listen to make that determination. And then we have some guidelines for how frequently we can come back and check the ongoing conversation to see if that conversation has turned criminal or turned into something relevant to the investigation.
MS. DUGAN: So the officer can then go back in and listen in again to see if they are now talking about something relevant.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct. We call this spot checking.
MS. DUGAN: And can the listeners of the call tell if a law enforcement officer is doing that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: The listener of the call? I'm sorry?
MS. DUGAN: Can we, as the listeners here in the courtroom, tell if an officer is doing that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. In certain versions of the software there's an audible tone to indicate that it's been minimized. There's printouts from the software that tells us when audio was listened to and when it was minimized. And there's just absences in the conversation, blank spaces where that recording did not occur.
MS. DUGAN: And is that the portion of the call that's minimized and is not recorded?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: When listening, though, and trying to decide whether something's relevant or irrelevant, are law enforcement officers also on the lookout for suspects trying to mask the meaning of what they're saying in case law enforcement's listening — maybe they are talking about the crime but they're using words that don't sound criminal in order to do it?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: Is that quite common?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It is, yes.
MS. DUGAN: Which phones were tapped in this case?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Mr. Charlie Adelson's and Ms. Catherine Magbanua's.
MS. DUGAN: And was that Charlie Adelson's phone number ending in 9223 and Magbanua's phone ending in 1312?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And who supervised the wiretap in 2016 in this case?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: A number of supervisors. I supervised from a technical standpoint to make sure that the information was being received and operating functionally. The case agent supervised the investigative standpoint. A representative from the State Attorney's Office to monitor the legal side of things. And we have to do periodic reports or updates to a judge during the ongoing wire alerting him of our progress and seeking authorization to continue. So there's a good bit of oversight.
MS. DUGAN: And who keeps or maintains the recordings of the wire calls?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: A designated officer at TPD in this case.
MS. DUGAN: And those recordings, are they stored in a secure manner at TPD?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: On a few different recorded conversations throughout the wiretap, are you aware of statements made by Charlie Adelson that he does not know who Tudor is?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I am, yes.
MS. DUGAN: In your review of Charlie Adelson's iCloud — like his text messages in the iCloud — were there messages where he and Magbanua are having conversations about mundane things, but he says Tudor to her, he refers to Garcia as Tudor?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: He does, yes. So the phone records indicate that despite what Charlie Adelson says on the wire, he did know Garcia's nickname was Tudor.
MS. DUGAN: He did know Garcia's nickname was Tudor?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That would be from the iCloud return, but yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. All right, I want to move on to the bump in this case, which the wire calls came after the bump.
MS. DUGAN: Can you tell us the date and time of the bump in this case?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So these are the records of Donna Adelson's communication during that timeframe. This is 4-19 of 2016, and what we see is the bump happened at 1:47 p.m.
MS. DUGAN: Who was Donna Adelson's first call after the bump — and meaning the bump is when the undercover agent approached her on the street?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: The first call was to Charlie Adelson.
MS. DUGAN: Did she call Wendi Adelson or Harvey Adelson during that time?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Immediately after? No.
MS. DUGAN: Did she call Catherine Magbanua at any point?
MS. DUGAN: Anyone else associated with this case besides Charlie Adelson?
MS. DUGAN: And when was her first call to Charlie Adelson after the bump?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: 2:09.
MS. DUGAN: So about a little over 20 minutes later?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: All right. Was Donna Adelson detained and charged in this case?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I believe it was on November 15th of 2023, yes.
MS. DUGAN: We'll get into the details of that later, but what I want to talk about now is whether we were able to, on the day that she was detained and charged, was her cell phone taken by law enforcement and a Cellebrite done on that cell phone?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: And in the cell phone that was in her possession, was there evidence that Donna Adelson and Wendi Adelson talked about Charlie Adelson's trial — his November 2023 trial — and the verdict as it was happening?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. DUGAN: Are you familiar with Charlie Adelson's testimony in his trial that Garcia and Rivera killed Dan Markel on their own —
MR. ZELMAN: Objection. Counsel's testifying.
JUDGE EVERETT: Sustained as to counsel testifying. Please establish the foundation for your question.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Uh, Judge, can we have a sidebar please? Thank you.
JUDGE EVERETT: It's time. We are going to take our lunch break for this morning. Once again, I'm going to instruct you not to discuss this case with each other or any other person. Also, as well, do not look at any other outside information or news on this matter. We will resume with the trial this afternoon at 1:20. Please be back by 1:15. Enjoy your break, everyone.
JUDGE EVERETT: Everyone can be seated.
JUDGE EVERETT: During the break concerning the evidentiary point for which this testimony is seeking to be admitted. I will review while we're on break as well. Are there any other matters that we need to address from the defense?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Nothing from the State, Judge.
MR. ZELMAN: Nothing from the defense this time, Your Honor.
JUDGE EVERETT: Please report back by 1:15 as well. At that time we will continue with Sergeant Corbitt's examination. After this portion of the examination, Ms. Dugan, will the State's direct be coming to a conclusion?
MS. DUGAN: Can you repeat that, Judge?
JUDGE EVERETT: After this part of the direct examination will the direct coming to a conclusion of Sergeant Corbitt?
MS. DUGAN: I would say I have maybe 30 minutes left, 30 to 45 minutes.
JUDGE EVERETT: Very well.
JUDGE EVERETT: Sergeant, enjoy your lunch as well. This might be a record — two breaks.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Could be. Thanks, sir.
JUDGE EVERETT: We'll see if we can get you off the stand before we rest for the evening.
JUDGE EVERETT: 1:15. 1:15.
MS. DUGAN: Thank you, sir.
JUDGE EVERETT: I was able to research the matter during the lunch break, and at the conclusion of that research, the ground for which it's being offered is as an adoptive admission, which is permissible under the rules of evidence. I will also find there are other grounds in which it would be permissible as well.
JUDGE EVERETT: The citation of the case that I'm relying upon for this — Jones v. State, 127 So.3d 622 — deals with this matter, as well as the treatise provided by Professor Earhart on this matter.
JUDGE EVERETT: Are there any other issues that we need to address before we continue with the examination of Sergeant Corbitt?
MR. ZELMAN: All right. If I could have a moment. I found a case that held the contrary, but I'd like an opportunity to read the case that Your Honor cited.
JUDGE EVERETT: Well, this is not a motion hearing, Mr. Zelman.
JUDGE EVERETT: If you wish to place your case on the record, please do so, but I am finding that it is admissible as an adopted admission.
MR. ZELMAN: Your Honor, State v. Hernandez, 875 Southern 2nd 1271.
MR. ZELMAN: I have a copy for the State and for Your Honor. May I approach?
JUDGE EVERETT: You may.
MR. ZELMAN: It's a Crawford issue, Your Honor.
JUDGE EVERETT: I read Hernandez as well while researching this matter. I believe Hernandez dealt with the aspect of silence as opposed to affirmatively making a statement, agreeing with the statement of another.
JUDGE EVERETT: These are distinguishable, but you may briefly speak about Hernandez before the jurors are in the room.
MR. ZELMAN: Well, Your Honor, again, I hadn't seen Jones.
MR. ZELMAN: However, this case specifically holds that the adoptive admission must still satisfy Crawford. Again, having read Jones, I don't know how that applies, but I do object — certainly respect the court's law.
JUDGE EVERETT: Objection is noted for the record. The testimony of the sergeant will be permitted as an adopted admission. And again, I will find there are other admissibility theories as well concerning this line of questioning. However, as to the one raised by the State — adopted admission specifically — I will find it is permitted.
JUDGE EVERETT: You may bring the jurors.
MR. ZELMAN: Judge, before we do that, one additional issue. The statement, under an adopted admission, has to have been heard, I believe, by the party that is allegedly adopting it. There's no evidence that my client watched the trial or heard her son's testimony.
JUDGE EVERETT: As to the foundation of that, Ms. Dugan, you certainly need to lay it. An adoptive admission occurs when there is an express statement agreeing with the statement of another. Concerning any statement by your client that was made in which she agreed or otherwise stated in some way the testimony of another person at the trial of Charlie Adelson — namely, Charlie Adelson — was true.
JUDGE EVERETT: This qualifies. Please bring them up.
JUDGE EVERETT: Members of the jury, I hope you enjoyed your lunchtime rest and break. We will continue with the examination of Sergeant Corbitt at this point. Ms. Dugan, you may continue with your examination.
MS. DUGAN: No further, thank you.
JUDGE EVERETT: Cross-examination.
MR. ZELMAN: Just a moment, Your Honor.
MR. ZELMAN: Good afternoon, Sergeant.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Good afternoon.
MR. ZELMAN: Now, I believe some of this you covered yesterday, but I just want to clarify a few things.
MR. ZELMAN: These call detail records — they're generated by the carriers?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. ZELMAN: They're generated for business purposes of the carrier, correct?
MR. ZELMAN: So they're generated to — you know, back when I think I got a cell phone, we had a plan with a certain limit; now they're unlimited, but that was one of the reasons why call detail records were created, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Certainly, billing purposes, yes.
MR. ZELMAN: And what about network load — as far as the creation of records?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, so network load — there are reports that I spoke about, the kind of specialty reports that are more of an engineering standpoint and are used by carriers to more effectively manage their network. Amongst other things, load might be something that they would be considering with those records.
MR. ZELMAN: Now, the call detail records that you testified about extensively over the last couple days — they do not contain precise geolocation data for a handset, do they?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: The majority of the records that I've spoken about, no, do not.
MR. ZELMAN: And specifically the records that you relied upon for mapping purposes that you displayed earlier?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That is correct. All of the records used for mapping are strictly cell site locations, so the locations that you've seen were for the cell site or cell tower the handset was communicating with, not the cell phone itself.
MR. ZELMAN: And using the cell site sector, you can at least identify where on a map a handset could be, correct?
MR. ZELMAN: And so when you're mapping those dots that are on your maps, those are the cell sites?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That is correct.
MR. ZELMAN: They're not the handset, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MR. ZELMAN: Now, there are variables that influence how a device, a handset, communicates with a network, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Certainly.
MR. ZELMAN: Would some of those include the signal strength of the handset?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Signal strength — or really signal quality — is one of the primary things that a handset uses, or the network uses, to determine which cell site a handset may communicate with. So the signal quality is largely affected by signal strength, as you asked, meaning the closer you are to the tower, the stronger the signal is, generally the better quality the signal is.
MR. ZELMAN: Now, what can interfere with a phone or device connecting with a tower?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: A number of things.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Primarily structures, buildings. Here in downtown, we have a number of cell sites around the area. And if you were behind this courthouse — a very large, substantially built building — and there were cell sites on the opposite side, the density of this building would probably prevent your handset from being able to communicate with that cell site, and you may choose a cell site that's somewhere else that your handset is better able to see.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Topography — hills, valleys, cell sites that are on the other side of a mountain that your handset may not be able to see or communicate with. Those are really the primary things. Bodies of water. But the physical obstruction — topography — is probably, to me, the greatest effect.
MR. ZELMAN: What about network load on a specific cell site?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So load can be a factor. The handsets, as they're creating energy — this radio frequency, the signals that are going back and forth — it is a bit of noise. And so the towers, if there's a lot of handsets, that can create a lot of noise, which can affect that signal quality that I've been speaking about.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So towers can choose to adjust — "breathing" is sometimes what it's called — but there may be an adjustment by the tower or the network.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: If there is high density, then handsets can communicate with other cell sites.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Generally, no matter where you are, your handset is able to see multiple cell sites and sectors at the same time, and there's a lot that goes into the choice of, particularly, which one of those your handset is directed to communicate with for any particular event.
MR. ZELMAN: So merely because a handset is communicating with a specific cell tower, cell site, and sector, that doesn't mean that that's the closest one to that handset?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. ZELMAN: Do the call detail records that you have relied on in this case take into consideration whether or not a tower is under maintenance, or partially functioning, or otherwise operating at a reduced capacity?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Only in the respect that if it were not functioning, then it would not be listed in the records. If it were not operational, the handset would not be able to communicate with it. So when I see a cell site and sector in the records, I know that it was operational because the handset did in fact communicate with that.
MR. ZELMAN: But there's no way to tell from the call detail records that you relied on here whether or not a specific cell site was partially functioning?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I don't know exactly what you mean by "partially functional."
MR. ZELMAN: Well, were any of them operating in reduced capacity?
MR. ZELMAN: You can't tell that from the call detail records, can you?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I could not tell the load or the capacity on the tower at any particular time, no.
MR. ZELMAN: And so you just listed a number of factors that can affect call routing and cell site selection, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I did, yes.
MR. ZELMAN: Now, those same factors can influence when a call is handed off to another cell site, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They can, yes.
MR. ZELMAN: And so not only in this instance do we have a handset that is moving on a highway, but you also have those other factors that could influence what cell site the handset is communicating with?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. ZELMAN: And — understanding all of those variables, that's critical to you analyzing and interpreting the data?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It is, yes.
MR. ZELMAN: And — so would you agree that the analysis that you conduct has some inherent limitations?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It certainly has limitations, as far as nothing in the analysis that I've done is meant to say exactly where a handset is. We're unable to do that. Again, I talked about inclusion and exclusion — that we know the general service area of a cell site and so we include and exclude locations. But the limitation, to the effect of, we cannot say exactly where a handset is — is correct.
MR. ZELMAN: So, in other words, it involves some degree of estimation or inference?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I would agree with that, yes.
MR. ZELMAN: Now, could you pull up the presentation that you were showing us earlier?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do have it, yes.
MR. ZELMAN: I want you to turn — Let's start with one — thing that the State brought out.
MR. ZELMAN: Let's go to the frequency report. I believe it's on slide 28.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Apologies, a little trouble getting back there. Slide —
MR. ZELMAN: — 28, the frequency report for Donna Adelson.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Okay.
MR. ZELMAN: Can you explain to the jury again the process of creating this report? I believe what you said yesterday was that you put the data from the carrier into a tool, a program.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MR. ZELMAN: Okay. And then you did the same for Charlie's — Charlie Adelson's — CDRs?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MR. ZELMAN: Katherine Magbanua?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MR. ZELMAN: Sigfredo Garcia?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MR. ZELMAN: Luis Rivera?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MR. ZELMAN: Anyone else?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Really, most any set of records that we had. The frequency report is one of the first things and most basic things that we do with the records.
MR. ZELMAN: Now, there's a process that you have to go through called — I believe it's called "de-duping." Are you familiar with that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It depends on which way you're referring to it.
MR. ZELMAN: Well, when you're talking about call detail records and frequency analysis, there's a way — and I think you gave us an example yesterday on some of your slides about how one communication event can show up multiple times.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So we do see with certain carriers that a call that comes in that is routed maybe to voicemail creates multiple events, and it creates multiple records, and some of those will be tied to the same number. Some of them are tied to kind of a — not fictitious, but a routing — phone number. So they really count against the frequency for a particular target.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: But as I mentioned, these frequency reports are very general ideas of relationships and associations.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So for these, we mentioned that it does include things like miscommunications, calls that went to voicemail. It may include the multiple events because those things are generally distributed equally across all the calls. It's not just one phone that's going to create those multiple entries — all phones calling in should create about the same things. So it's certainly not meant to be an exact number of communications. It's just an idea of, again, kind of relevance and association.
MR. ZELMAN: Okay. So, in that vein, if you could look at — Let's look at, I believe it was slide 122.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, sir.
MR. ZELMAN: Okay. Now, with respect to this slide, have you gone into the data and manually removed duplicate events?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I have, yes.
MR. ZELMAN: And the same with — have you done the same for slides 26 and 28?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Slide 26 is the frequency report for Charlie Adelson, and I believe that 28 is, again, Donna Adelson's. No, I have not removed duplicate events from these frequency reports.
MR. ZELMAN: So those aren't accurate?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They are accurate. They accurately represent — from the call detail records — every time that cell phone number appeared in the records.
MR. ZELMAN: Okay, there's a poorly worded question. I apologize.
MR. ZELMAN: It's not accurate in the sense that there are not 80 actual communications between my client and her son?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There may be — there may be fewer. Again, this includes those routed events, the not-answered, going to voicemail — all of those are included. Text messages, voice calls — all of those are included in this tallying. It is just from the raw records.
MR. ZELMAN: And so, in other words, you see the 80 up there. You recall — I believe it's the AT&T records — could have three separate events for one communication. Is that correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They could. That would generally only tally two for a particular phone number, because that third event is generally going to have a routing phone number in it.
MR. ZELMAN: And so this does not account for that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It does not.
MR. ZELMAN: I believe on slide 98, if you could turn to that.
MR. ZELMAN: Can you keep going? And might have been the next one — "Erase this text after you read it." Was the text erased?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Text was still in the iCloud return, so I could not tell you if it was deleted from the device or not.
MR. ZELMAN: You never got the handset that that iCloud is associated with?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That is correct.
MR. ZELMAN: And that would be Charlie's phone, correct? Okay.
MR. ZELMAN: Slide 116.
MR. ZELMAN: Looks like on this one, there are two conversations between Charlie Adelson and Katherine Magbanua, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: One is an attempt. So as it says, Charlie attempts Katherine — this was an inbound that I don't believe was answered, or that any actual communications occurred.
MR. ZELMAN: Okay. So the one event, we don't know what was discussed, do we?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We do not know.
MR. ZELMAN: Slide 117.
MR. ZELMAN: We don't know what was discussed between Charlie and whomever he was speaking with at the Adelson residence, do we?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We do not.
MR. ZELMAN: 119.
MR. ZELMAN: We don't know what was discussed between Harvey Adelson and Charlie Adelson.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We do not.
MR. ZELMAN: 120.
MR. ZELMAN: We don't know what was discussed between Katherine and Charlie, do we?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We do not.
MR. ZELMAN: And we don't have the content of the text messages that the data indicates took place.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. ZELMAN: With respect to the calls to the landline, do you know anything about the signal strength for the Adelson residence in Coral Springs? You know, as far as their ability to connect with local towers back in 2014?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I only know what I have seen from looking at different sets of records.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I know that their handsets have events with location that are consistent with their home on a fairly regular basis. I can do analysis and determine if the handsets are home or not. So as to whether that's great signal or not, there are a number of events their handsets are creating with cell sites near their residence that would be consistent with their residence. I know that there are parts of my house where I can have a conversation, but if I walk into the garage, I don't have a good signal.
MR. ZELMAN: You don't know where in the house that they were to have any sort of conversation in their home?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do not.
MR. ZELMAN: Now, if you could go to 135 and advance one. So— During this 36 to 20 — uh, 48-hour period, does the seven communications or attempted communications between Donna Adelson and Charlie Adelson indicate a spike?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I would not say so, no.
MR. ZELMAN: Okay. And for what time period did you review their records in?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Different — we have records that span years, and they are a little different for each person. For some we have several months, for some we have years' worth of records. So I have looked at periods of time for their records spanning several years.
MR. ZELMAN: Okay. Now, specific as to Donna Adelson, Charlie Adelson — you have at least four or five years' worth of records for them?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Probably that many, yes.
MR. ZELMAN: If not more?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Possibly, yes.
MR. ZELMAN: And so the amount of communications or attempted communications that are indicated during the June 2nd to June 4th, as you refer to it, flurry of communications — seven is not a spike?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do not consider it an abnormally high number of communications.
MR. ZELMAN: With the same with respect to the July trip. Can you advance to that slide, please?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I believe that's what you're looking for.
MR. ZELMAN: Yes. Now again, this is approximately a 38-hour time period?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MR. ZELMAN: The four communications or attempted communications between my client and her son — those do not represent a spike, do they?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They do not.
MR. ZELMAN: And so the flurry of communications that you testified to earlier, at least as it pertains to my client and her son, did not take place, did it?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I'm not sure where the characterization of a flurry came from. I don't believe that I used the term "call flurry." We were looking at calling analysis or calling activity during certain periods of time, and the only question being asked of the analysis in this time frame is: was there the potential for the exchange of information from one person to the other? And that's what we see — that there is communication from one person to the other across the subjects during a time frame that may be more significant than others. It's not meant to reflect a high volume or a different tempo of communication, just that there is at least the potential for the exchange of information.
MR. ZELMAN: Let's talk about the emails briefly. Go to slide 140, please.
MR. ZELMAN: You testified this morning that this was sent out. Now, Evite is an online platform where anyone can go in and create an event and send out invitations, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. ZELMAN: Back in 2014, do you have any personal knowledge as to how that website operated in 2014?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do not.
MR. ZELMAN: Believe that you indicated that there was an indication that Donna Adelson was unfamiliar with that process, correct?
MR. ZELMAN: As we sit here today, you cannot testify that Donna Adelson created that event on Evite.com, can you?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I can only testify as to the email where she asked if her invitations had been sent yet, and where she describes how she entered the contacts — how she entered the invitees as contacts.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's the only thing that I can take from that email.
MR. ZELMAN: Now, also with respect to the emails, there were quite a few search warrants done for email accounts in this case, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MR. ZELMAN: How many emails were recovered during this investigation?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Like, total number?
MR. ZELMAN: Yes.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Hundreds of thousands.
MR. ZELMAN: Specific as to donahardy@gmail.com, how many emails were recovered?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do not recall the total amount.
MR. ZELMAN: In excess of 50,000?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I believe so, yes.
MR. ZELMAN: In excess of 70,000?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I don't recall, and I've only seen a subset of those.
MR. ZELMAN: Who decided what subset you would review?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
MR. ZELMAN: Let's look at slide 143.
MR. ZELMAN: You testified earlier that this was an email from Dan Markel to Wendi Adelson in January of 2024 concerning their schedule with the kids beginning in April.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: January of 2014, but yes.
MR. ZELMAN: Yes, sorry.
MR. ZELMAN: Are you also aware that there were subsequent emails and text messages between the two of them where this schedule changed or was modified?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I'm not aware of any changes or modifications.
MR. ZELMAN: So you have not reviewed them, or you're not aware of them?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I'm not aware of them. I have not seen anything. I have not done a great deal of research into the schedule with the children, but I am, as I sit here, not aware of any changes.
MR. ZELMAN: How did you decide to put this email in the presentation?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: The emails are reviewed by, you know, whomever is investigating the case, assisting to investigate. They're provided to the state attorney's office for a determination as to what should be included in the presentation.
MR. ZELMAN: With respect to Wendi Adelson's phone, are there different types of extractions that can be done on these devices?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, there are different sort of levels of forensic examinations that can be done, yes.
MR. ZELMAN: And what are those levels?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Well, it kind of varies by device, by time period, by forensic tool, but we generally talk about a logical extraction where we're taking the majority of information we can get access to kind of in a logical fashion. If this appears to be a text message, it's a text message; phone call is a phone call.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It is not as thorough as generally what we may consider a file system or a full file system extraction.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So those are kind of the basics.
MR. ZELMAN: Which one is preferable when conducting an investigation?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We want the most detail that we can get.
MR. ZELMAN: And the most detailed for most handsets is going to be a full extraction, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It would be, but there are a number of things that may prohibit us from getting that full file system or full extraction — encryption, passwords that cannot be broken, phones that are not supported by forensic tools. We frequently want the full extraction but are unable to get it.
MR. ZELMAN: Now let's talk about Wendi Adelson's phone. Her phone was searched pursuant to consent, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I believe that's correct.
MR. ZELMAN: And there were no limitations of that consent?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I am not the one who obtained the consent or did the examination, so I don't believe there were, but I don't have first-hand knowledge of that.
MR. ZELMAN: Okay, well, I believe — are you aware that Wendi Adelson gave a lengthy statement to investigators?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MR. ZELMAN: During the course of that interview, she voluntarily provided her cell phone for extraction.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Again, I believe that is correct.
MR. ZELMAN: And are you aware that she put any limitations on that extraction?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I'm not aware of any limitations.
MR. ZELMAN: And so what type of extraction was done on her device?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: A logical extraction.
MR. ZELMAN: And as we've discussed, just a logical extraction is not a complete extraction from a device.
MR. ZELMAN: It generally has less information, correct? In this case, if you look at the extraction — the forensic extraction — there's significantly less data in her phone extraction than in other devices' extractions in this case.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, yes, there is less data, but that may be an indication of less data on her device as well.
MR. ZELMAN: I want to talk about the morning of July 18th of 2014. I didn't write down the slide number, but you indicated earlier that — you had a slide that Wendi called Donna, Donna called Wendi. Can you pull that up?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I can.
MR. ZELMAN: Thank you.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: What slide number is this?
MR. ZELMAN: This is slide 196.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Thank you.
MR. ZELMAN: So slide 196.
MR. ZELMAN: Your analysis reveals that Wendi called her mother first, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Well, these calls are, as noted, at the same time. So they're both at 8:09.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: And one of the limitations we have with some of the sets of records we have is that some were provided with only hours and minutes of call, and some were provided with hours, minutes, and seconds. So these calls actually occurred in the same minute, but it's possible that Donna's call was first.
MR. ZELMAN: Don't you have records that indicate seconds?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We do have records that indicate seconds.
MR. ZELMAN: Specific for this day?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I don't know if we have specific for this day. We have multiple sets of records and multiple overlapping sets of records.
MR. ZELMAN: You have been involved in this case since its inception, since Mr. Markel was murdered, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MR. ZELMAN: And it's typically in your field best to use records that have more data rather than less, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Generally, yes.
MR. ZELMAN: Have you gone back to determine who called who first?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I have not, but I could.
MR. ZELMAN: And so if I were to tell you that records with seconds reveal that Donna Adelson gets a call from Geek Squad and immediately calls her daughter, and then while Donna is calling her daughter, Geek Squad calls her daughter — would that also be consistent with both calls happening at 8:09?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MR. ZELMAN: And by using the records with more information, you would be able to present this in an accurate order, would you not?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They both indicate the time of 8:09 for the calls and, as discussed — or as presented, hopefully — there was a phone tag that occurred here in 8:09, and so that, yes.
MR. ZELMAN: I believe you had moved to slide 210 now.
MR. ZELMAN: This is after the text message exchange between Wendi Adelson and Dan Markel, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MR. ZELMAN: And that's the one where, after Mr. Markel had left a voicemail for Wendi, Wendi texts him saying swimming won't work today because "I'm picking the kids up at 3:30," correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MR. ZELMAN: And then they kind of have a disagreement about the time that Wendi can pick the boys up.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They do.
MR. ZELMAN: After Wendi gets that information from Mr. Markel, she then calls her brother.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MR. ZELMAN: She didn't call her mother.
MR. ZELMAN: Now, I believe after this call between Wendi and Charlie — Charlie, I think it's on slide 213 — he tries to call Donna.
MR. ZELMAN: 30 seconds — that indicates to you that the call did not connect?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: More than likely.
MR. ZELMAN: I believe you go to slide 272.
MR. ZELMAN: I may have gotten the slide wrong. If you can back up a couple of slides, please.
MR. ZELMAN: So the text — I believe that the State inadvertently mischaracterized the evidence and testimony and the questioning.
MR. ZELMAN: The last connection to a cell tower for Donna Adelson was at 8:59, not 8:35, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: For — 8:59, for location — like, location that we would use?
MR. ZELMAN: Yes.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I don't recall an 8:59 event.
MR. ZELMAN: Okay, I'm sorry — so you have the 8:59 as the text message.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. ZELMAN: And that's from Charlie Adelson's iCloud.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That is correct.
MR. ZELMAN: And you don't get location from that.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We do not.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: And so, probably important to point out — some of these are chats. So they're actually occurring over the data network. They're iMessage versus carrier-based text messaging, where we're more likely to see locations associated with text. So with the iCloud, and knowing that those are traversing the iMessage or the Apple network, it's common for us not to have locations attached to those.
MR. ZELMAN: So in that regard, iMessages aren't going to show up in call detail records?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They do not.
MR. ZELMAN: Other apps — communication apps — are not going to show up in call detail.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. ZELMAN: Now, this tragedy took place a little over 11 years ago, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MR. ZELMAN: And up until your July 10, 2025 deposition, you had not done the drive yourself, had you?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. ZELMAN: Did you do any research to determine what construction had taken place at I-95 between July 18th of 2014 and July 18th of 2025?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I-95 where?
MR. ZELMAN: Where you drove.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Uh, I know that there was a number of changes to I-95 at the area where it separates from the turnpike — the Florida Turnpike. I did specifically look at the turnpike in relation to Mr. Adelson's residence to make sure that there have been no changes in the roadway there.
MR. ZELMAN: Okay, so the turnpike — it's your testimony that in the last 11 years the turnpike in that area has not been widened?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I don't recall it's been widened. The off-ramp is in the same location, the aerial photography is exactly the same for that exchange, and again, the drive was done because there was a question raised somewhere along the way about the ability to get off the turnpike and to Mr. Adelson's residence. And so, just to clarify that, more research was done, and so again, looking at that — there's been a number of changes around that area, water drainage have been filled in, buildings have been built, all kinds of things have happened, but the roadway itself remains the same.
MR. ZELMAN: So again, my question is — has the road been widened? Has there been construction?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There may have been construction and replacement, and I can say with certainty — and I can look at it again — but with certainty, the routes, the off-ramps, the exchanges are in the same position that they are. If the lanes are a little wider, I don't — there was no significant change in anything about getting off the turnpike and getting over to Mr. Adelson's road.
MR. ZELMAN: Sergeant Corbitt, I don't know if I'm asking a poor question or you're misunderstanding — has there been construction on the turnpike in the last 11 years?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I'm sure there has, yes.
MR. ZELMAN: Did you do anything to determine if that had happened?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MR. ZELMAN: Okay, and yet you're still giving us a qualified answer.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: You're asking about widening — I don't recall seeing — and again, the area that I looked at was the turnpike, the off-ramp of the turnpike, the exchange that goes to the east and then connects with Mr. Adelson's road. There were no changes to that. If the turnpike was widened somewhere, that may be possible. I did not look for that. Again, I'm looking for — the path of travel had not changed.
MR. ZELMAN: So you looked for records that would be consistent with the State's theory?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I looked.
MR. ZELMAN: To establish that the route hadn't been altered in any way?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: The question raised was, can you get off the turnpike and get to Charlie Adelson's residence? And the answer is yes.
MR. ZELMAN: Yes. Now, what were the traffic conditions on July 18th of 2014?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do not know.
MR. ZELMAN: Did you do anything to try to find that out?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I did.
MR. ZELMAN: And what did you do?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I tried to research through Department of Transportation if they had traffic and crash data going back that far, and I did not find any.
MR. ZELMAN: Is that because the retention period had been exceeded?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Most likely, yes.
MR. ZELMAN: What is a retention period?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do not know the exact retention period.
MR. ZELMAN: You know — tell us. What is a retention —
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I'm sorry. A retention period would be a policy of a holder of information for how long they hold that. And so, carriers have retention periods for their cell phone records. It may be one year, and after one year they purge that data. Could be two years, could be ten years, but that retention period is a policy for how long they retain records.
MR. ZELMAN: So as we sit here today, do you know the retention period for DHSMV to keep accident records?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do not.
MR. ZELMAN: What about construction records for I-95 and the Turnpike?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do not.
MR. ZELMAN: Did you do anything to collect construction records for I-95 or the Turnpike between July 18th of 2014 and the present day?
MR. ZELMAN: How many lanes were on 95 between my client's residence in Miami Beach and her son's residence back in 2014?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do not know the exact number.
MR. ZELMAN: What about now?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It varies. There were six or more in certain places. There was construction going on when I drove.
MR. ZELMAN: What about the turnpike? How many lanes were on the turnpike back in 2014?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Again, varies by the location where you're at, but two to three in any direction.
MR. ZELMAN: And what about now?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Same.
MR. ZELMAN: Now, I say "same now" —
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Depending on where we're talking about. So I'm looking at a very narrow stretch of the turnpike.
MR. ZELMAN: Talk about the turnpike in its entirety.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I'm sure it's undergone a lot of changes.
MR. ZELMAN: Now, when you did this drive, you had gas in your car, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I did.
MR. ZELMAN: You did not have to stop for gas while you're doing this test drive, did you?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: During those particular sessions or sections, no, I did not.
MR. ZELMAN: You had snacks with you?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I did.
MR. ZELMAN: So you didn't have to stop for snacks?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I did not have to.
MR. ZELMAN: Um, did you stop for any meals along the way during this drive test?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: During these particular sessions or sections of road travel, no, I did not.
MR. ZELMAN: And there's a reason I'm going to ask this question — how old were you at the time you did this test?
MR. ZELMAN: So — not in your 60s, not in your 70s, not quite. Now — Have you ever driven, been on the highway, got behind a slow-moving vehicle — frustrates you, right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It may, yes.
MR. ZELMAN: And you have an opportunity to pass — let me drive by and see — someone older driving?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Sometimes, yes.
MR. ZELMAN: Do you know how fast Harvey and Donna Adelson were driving on July 18th of 2014?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do not.
MR. ZELMAN: And so not knowing how fast they are driving, can you give an accurate estimate for how long the drive would take them?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I think I can give an accurate estimate based on speed limit and distance, but as far as how — which is, I believe, substantiated by segments of travel. So the travel from the 8:32 point to Charlie Adelson's was very consistent with the estimations. The travel from 10:53 to the hotel — consistent with estimations.
MR. ZELMAN: I want to stop you right there. The 10:53 point — can you pull that up please? I believe it's actually here. Go to the next slide, or series, where we show 10:53 to Orlando. That section of the Turnpike is not in an area that is as densely populated as the section to the south, is it?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It's not.
MR. ZELMAN: Okay. And so the section south on the Turnpike, you're going to get more commuter traffic than you will in this section, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I would agree with that, yes.
MR. ZELMAN: And so you're not going to necessarily be in stop-and-go traffic as you would if you were to the south, usually.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, I would agree with that.
MR. ZELMAN: Now was anything done — let me ask this differently. Do you know whether or not, at the time Donna and Harvey Adelson left their apartment on Miami Beach to start driving north, had they eaten dinner?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do not know.
MR. ZELMAN: Did they have a full tank of gas?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Do not know.
MR. ZELMAN: How many times did they stop to go to the bathroom?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Do not know.
MR. ZELMAN: Did they stop to get coffee?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They may have.
MR. ZELMAN: This was late night.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I did.
MR. ZELMAN: And you're much younger than they were at the time. You stopped for coffee.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I did.
MR. ZELMAN: Just a moment, Your Honor.
MR. ZELMAN: Sergeant Corbitt, you just made a statement that I believe your deposition testimony contradicted. You said the time that it would take to get from their residence to Charlie Adelson's residence — Can you, with the call detail records, place my client Donna Adelson's handset at Charlie Adelson's residence on July 18th of 2014?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: From cell site locations in the records? No. And —
MR. ZELMAN: At no point on July 18th of 2014 can you place Donna Adelson's handset and/or Harvey Adelson's handset connecting to the same cell site at the same time as Charlie Adelson's handset.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. ZELMAN: So from the call detail records, you cannot testify — you cannot tell this jury — that my client was at her son's house?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. ZELMAN: Nothing further.
JUDGE EVERETT: Redirect.
MS. DUGAN: Yes, sir.
MS. DUGAN: Do the text messages place Donna Adelson at Charlie Adelson's house?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I believe the "outside your house" text message is indicative of her being outside his house.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. That's what Donna Adelson tells us in that text message, right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I believe so, yes.
MS. DUGAN: And then she has an hour and six minutes — was it? — of unaccounted-for time on the stretch of the drive, that's on the same stretch of the drive where Charlie Adelson's house is, right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: You got lots of — and did you do this drive in 2025 because the defense questioned the fact that you hadn't done it, didn't know if you could do it? In the 2025 depo, there was a question as to who raised it.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I'm not certain.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. Thank you.
MS. DUGAN: You got lots of questions about construction on the Turnpike.
MS. DUGAN: Defense asks if their client could have gotten stopped for that extra hour that's unaccounted for in construction.
MS. DUGAN: Did Donna Adelson tell us in that text message where she stopped on the drive? Did she say she was outside of Charlie Adelson's house?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Agreed.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And then Charlie Adelson gave her his estimated time of arrival at the house for 10 minutes from then, is that right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Correct.
MS. DUGAN: If the Adelsons were just driving really slow on that first part of the drive — where they have over an hour of unaccounted-for time — would they then have had to speed up to normal cruising speed for the second part of the drive, where they made it from the 10:53 location to Orlando inconsistent with — a consistent amount of time as the estimated time that we see on Esri?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. The second part of that — the second half, if we'll call it, of the trip — was done at close to the estimated time. So the speed and travel were close to what would be expected.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: The first half of that trip, it was not.
MS. DUGAN: Okay. And when you did the drive and went from the 8 — I believe, was it 8:32 or 8:34 — location?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. One of those.
MS. DUGAN: Before the end of the 8:35 call. Okay, 8:34 location.
MS. DUGAN: When you did that drive, were you able to get, on the same day of the week, the same time of Friday night, from that point to Charlie Adelson's house in the estimated amount of time?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I was, yes.
MS. DUGAN: Okay, and same with the second part of the drive — from Charlie Adelson's house to the 10:53 location. Was that consistent with the estimated time from Esri?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: With just a few minutes, yes — or within just a few minutes.
MS. DUGAN: All right. And you would have been driving in the same conditions in North Miami — same date, same time of day — as the Adelsons drove in 2014?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: As close as I could get.
MS. DUGAN: And did you say in this — in the emails for the Evite — that Donna Adelson told Evite that she entered the invitees as contacts?
MS. DUGAN: Correct. In the beginning of cross-examination, defense asked you a bit about the things that could affect cell site towers — several variables that could affect cell site towers. But if those variables existed that affected these cell site towers and kept the cell site towers from having too much load to be able to handle the communication, would we see phone communication with those cell site towers in the records, as we do?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Again, if the tower was not operational, no — the handset is not going to communicate with it. But those things again, when we're talking about the inclusion and exclusion of where a handset could be, we're aware that there may be cell sites that are closer, that may be stronger, bigger, taller — and all of that we take into consideration when we estimate the area that might be consistent with where the handset was.
MS. DUGAN: Is there anything in the records that caused you to believe these records or analysis is unreliable in any way?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yeah.
MS. DUGAN: Just a second. No further questions. Thank you.
JUDGE EVERETT: Sergeant. You may step down, finally.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Thank you, sir.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Well Judge, he would be subject to recall.
JUDGE EVERETT: Very well.
JUDGE EVERETT: Please call your next witness.
MS. CAPPLEMAN: Judge the next witness based on his former employment is the witness that we've asked camera not display his face. So we ask for an instruction for that at this time.
JUDGE EVERETT: Very well. The witness's face is not to be displayed, based on his prior employment in law enforcement.
JUDGE EVERETT: Certainly his voice and audio may be broadcast, but not his face.
MR. ZELMAN: Judge before the witness testifies can we have a very brief recess?
JUDGE EVERETT: That's fine. Members of the jury, the bailiff will take you to the jury — can be seated. Please use the restroom or stretch your legs now if you need to, before we resume with the testimony, for the gallery, once again, just as a reminder: while the testimony is taking place today, if you step outside of the court...