Christopher Corbitt — Direct/Cross/Redirect
654 linesBeginning of Corbitt direct is missing from courtroom video.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: ...understanding the records, mapping carrier records — so, yes.
MS. NORRIS: In addition to the, you know, I guess educational or training that you've received in this area, do you have any real life on-the-job experience doing that type of analysis?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, and we use communication record analysis on an almost daily basis, whether it's to locate missing persons or recover evidence or anything else. We use the practical side of it regularly.
MS. NORRIS: And how many of your 25 years with TPD — how many of those years have you been doing this type of analysis?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I've been in tech, I believe, for the last 14 years.
MS. NORRIS: Have you ever testified in a criminal case with respect to cell phone communication records analysis?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, I have.
MS. NORRIS: Approximately how many times?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Sixty-five.
MS. NORRIS: At this time the State tenders the witness, Your Honor.
JUDGE HANKINSON: Mr. Bordaro. All right, you may proceed.
MS. NORRIS: Thank you, Judge.
MS. NORRIS: So at some point, did you become involved in the investigation of the murder of Dan Markel?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, I did.
MS. NORRIS: And in what capacity did you become engaged in the investigation?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: The technical operations unit received a number of requests initially.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Again, with the variety of things that we do, there was a request for a forensic analysis of cell phones and some initial requests for communication records — to get cell phone records for some of the initial people involved in the investigation.
MS. NORRIS: So that would have been perhaps like a lead investigator who would reach out to you in tech ops and say, "Okay, there's some cell phone stuff going on that we need your help with"?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, absolutely. The investigator or someone in the investigative team will contact myself or one of the officers that works with me, and then tell us what it is that they need. "Hey, we have a phone that we're going to need examined," or "Here's a phone number we need to get some records for." So they give us the request, they tell us what it is that we need, and we help facilitate that.
MS. NORRIS: Throughout the course of TPD's investigation, were you intimately involved in that investigation?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I was, yes.
MS. NORRIS: Did you all develop certain individuals who were of interest or who were subjects in this criminal case?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, we did.
MS. NORRIS: And who were those individuals?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Well, obviously the Adelson family — being Charlie Adelson; the mother, Donna, and father, Harvey, were identified just as family members of Wendi Adelson, the ex-wife. Obviously Mr. Garcia, Ms. Magbanua — all were developed as suspects in the case. Mr. Rivera was developed as a suspect as well.
MS. NORRIS: And did you develop in the investigation phone numbers associated with each of these subjects that you just identified?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, we did.
MS. NORRIS: May I approach, Your Honor?
JUDGE HANKINSON: You may.
MS. NORRIS: I'm going to show you what I've marked for identification purposes as State's demonstrative duty.
MS. NORRIS: Can you see all of that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I can, yes.
MS. NORRIS: Okay. And do you recognize the photographs, names, and phone numbers depicted on each of these large charts?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do.
MS. NORRIS: Are the phone numbers and names and photographs associated with each line on here accurate?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They are.
MS. NORRIS: I'm just trying to get a position where I'm not covering the projector.
JUDGE HANKINSON: Half your jurors are not able to see it, hence —
MS. NORRIS: Yes, sir.
MS. NORRIS: If we could go through — if you could go through what the phone number associated with Harvey Adelson was.
JUDGE HANKINSON: Why don't you put the poster up over here for everybody.
MS. NORRIS: You mentioned that sometimes you'd be requested to get phone records associated with certain cell phone numbers.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct, yes.
MS. NORRIS: And you did that in this case?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I did, yes.
MS. NORRIS: May I approach the other?
JUDGE HANKINSON: Go ahead.
MS. NORRIS: I'm going to show you what's already in evidence as State's Exhibit 128. Do you recognize that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do, yes.
MS. NORRIS: And are those the phone records for Luis Rivera's cell phone number, 305-570-8153?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They are.
MS. NORRIS: Next, I'm going to show you State's Exhibit 129. Do you also recognize that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do.
MS. NORRIS: And what is that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: These are the phone records for Mr. Garcia's cell phone number of 786-372-5986.
MS. NORRIS: Next, I'm showing you State's Exhibit 131.
MS. NORRIS: Do you recognize that disc?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do.
MS. NORRIS: And how do you recognize that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I recognize it by my initials that are on the disc.
MS. NORRIS: And what does it contain?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It contains the cell phone records for Wendi Adelson.
MS. NORRIS: And is that the phone number 954-803-0079?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. NORRIS: Now I'm showing you State's Exhibit 132.
MS. NORRIS: Who is that for?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I'm sorry.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Wendi Adelson.
MS. NORRIS: I'm now showing you State's Exhibit 132.
MS. NORRIS: Do you recognize that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do.
MS. NORRIS: And what is that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: These would be the cell phone records for Donna Adelson at 954-396-0997.
MS. NORRIS: I'm showing you State's Exhibit 133.
MS. NORRIS: Do you similarly recognize that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do — the records for Charlie Adelson at the 954-254-9223.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Again, by my initials that are on the disc. It contains the cell phone records for Harvey Adelson at the 954-980-9032.
MS. NORRIS: Do you recognize that disc?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do.
MS. NORRIS: And what does it contain?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It contains the cell phone records for Ms. Magbanua at the 786-564-1312.
MS. NORRIS: And finally, I'm showing you State's Exhibit 137. Do you recognize that disc?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do.
MS. NORRIS: And what does it contain?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: These are the cell phone records for Mr. Dan Markel, and his cell phone number was 202-276-8200.
MS. NORRIS: Well, Sergeant Corbitt, each of these discs — I'm going to leave them; they're going to be for reference. Do they contain a voluminous amount of data?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, they do. Hundreds and thousands of pages of data — yes. For the various numbers, we obtain various amounts of records, and generally by that I mean the time frame for the records. But most of the records are in the hundreds or thousands of pages if they were to be printed out. There is a significant amount of data actually there if you were to try to print it out.
MS. NORRIS: And this is the data that you analyzed in preparation for testifying throughout the course of this trial?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. NORRIS: Okay. And is it true you'll be called to the stand multiple times throughout the trial by the State?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. NORRIS: So this first direct examination of you — what are you prepared to talk about?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Initially here, we're going to speak about Wendi Adelson's activity for the day of the homicide, and also some of the initial investigative steps that we took in an attempt to develop suspect phone numbers or suspects.
MS. NORRIS: In preparing to testify today, have you prepared a visual or demonstrative aid to assist the jury in understanding some of the records that you reviewed and the conclusions that you reached in this case?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, I have.
MS. NORRIS: And would that help you testify?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It would.
MS. NORRIS: Your Honor, at this time I'd ask permission to use the visual demonstration.
JUDGE HANKINSON: You may.
MR. DECOSTE: Objection, Your Honor. If we can approach sidebar while the tech is being settled.
JUDGE HANKINSON: With what?
MR. DECOSTE: If we can approach sidebar.
MS. NORRIS: Sergeant Corbitt, I first want to talk about Wendi Adelson's activities on July 18th of 2014.
MS. NORRIS: Are you familiar with her statements about her movements and her activities on that particular date?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, I am.
MS. NORRIS: And are you familiar with the route that she says that she took from her home through going to lunch at Mosaic?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, I am.
MS. NORRIS: And have you prepared a map showing the route that Wendi Adelson took?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, I have.
MS. NORRIS: Okay. Can you show that to us, please?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I can.
MS. NORRIS: Describe what you have on this slide for Ms. Adelson's travel on July 18th, 2014.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Well, we know that she left her residence on Aqua Ridge Way. She traveled down Centerville Road and in a cut-through to get towards the Thomasville Road area, traveled on Truscott Drive until she approached a roadblock, was unable to go further.
MS. NORRIS: Is that what's indicated with the map at 2116 Truscott Drive?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. NORRIS: And then where did she proceed after encountering the roadblock?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So after there, she proceeded back to Centerville Road and then proceeded on to her first destination, which was reportedly the ABC Fine Wine and Spirits there on Thomasville Road.
MS. NORRIS: And again, this is just based on her statements of what she did that day?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. NORRIS: Where did she proceed after going to the ABC Fine Wine and Spirits on Thomasville Road?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: She traveled to Mosaic, to the restaurant.
MS. NORRIS: Did you — and I believe we already went over the CD in front of you, State's Exhibit 131. I believe those are Wendi Adelson's phone records — 131?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We certainly have them here, yes. 131.
MS. NORRIS: And you analyzed Ms. Adelson's phone records as well?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, I did.
MS. NORRIS: What kind of information would a phone company provide — for example, as they did in Ms. Adelson's phone records?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Well, generally we obtain subscriber information — maybe that will tell us who an account is owned by or paid for — and we get what we call call detail records, or they're the general records that provide us with a date and time of an event, who's calling who, the duration. So from those CDRs, as we call them, we're able to determine, again, who's calling who and when. And there's also a section area that gives us some location information for the cell sites that a handset is using, and —
MS. NORRIS: — you reviewed this?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I did.
MS. NORRIS: Could you tell from Wendi Adelson's phone records whether or not she communicated with, or attempted to communicate with, Dan Markel on the morning that he was killed?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, there was attempted communication.
MS. NORRIS: And can you tell me more in detail about that attempted communication?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. There was an outgoing call at 11:42 a.m. from Ms. Adelson to Mr. Markel that, by the records, indicate that that phone call was not answered and that it was routed to voicemail.
MS. NORRIS: Now, by 11:42 a.m., was Mr. Markel already shot?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: He was, yes. Yes.
MS. NORRIS: Did you have any other evidence, in addition to her own statements about her movements the day of the murder, to put her at a certain location at a certain time?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: What we had recovered during the investigation was a receipt from ABC Liquors that gave us a timestamp. And we can see that that is 12:49 p.m. on July 18th of 2014. So that gives us at least an approximate time that she would have been at the ABC liquor store.
MS. NORRIS: So based on your analysis of her cell phone records that contain location information for different events like calls and texts that she's having, along with the receipt from ABC liquor at 12:49 p.m., are you able to ascertain an approximate timeframe that she would have encountered the roadblock on Truscott Drive?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. Obviously taking into account the time that it would take to turn around, continue on, get to the actual store, and conduct the transaction, then would have had to approach the—
MR. ZANGENEH: Objection, this is speculative.
JUDGE HANKINSON: Overruled.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Again, we can deduce that she would have passed the roadblock somewhere in the 12:40, 12:45 — maybe 12:35, 12:45 range.
MS. NORRIS: Once you had narrowed down the timing of her encounter with the roadblock, were you then able to look and see what, if any, calls or communications she attempted after encountering the roadblock?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. NORRIS: Did she attempt to call her child's daycare, Creative Preschool?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: She did not.
MS. NORRIS: Did she attempt to call Daniel Markel?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: She did not.
MS. NORRIS: Did she attempt to call 911 or any other emergency phone number?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: She did not.
MS. NORRIS: And based on her records, were you able to ascertain what it appeared she intended to do after that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. NORRIS: And what was that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That was a lunch date.
MS. NORRIS: And was that based on call logs, text messages, and voicemails?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, that's correct.
MS. NORRIS: Sergeant Corbitt, how long have you lived in Tallahassee, Florida?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Since 1988.
MS. NORRIS: Are you familiar with that area where Mosaic used to be, at I-10 and Thomasville Road?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I am.
MS. NORRIS: Are you familiar with whether or not there are any liquor stores in that vicinity?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I am, and yes, there are.
MS. NORRIS: And which liquor stores are in the vicinity of Mosaic restaurant back in July 2014?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Market Square Liquors was just across the shopping center there. There's a Publix Liquors and another ABC a little further up Thomasville Road.
MS. NORRIS: Are any of those three liquor stores closer to Wendi Adelson's residence at Aqua Ridge Road than the one she went to on South Thomasville Road?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, they all are.
MS. NORRIS: Can you show whether or not you're familiar with a different route she could have taken to be more direct to get to a liquor store?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. NORRIS: And is that what we're seeing here on this slide?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. The purple route is the route that she took. The dotted route would be, by the mapping software, what would be the most direct route, and you can see the location of the other liquor stores.
MS. NORRIS: As you mentioned previously, you know, we've just discussed Wendi Adelson's movements. You also indicated you were involved in the development of suspects through the use of technical data or cell phone communication records. Is that right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. NORRIS: And what kind of tools did you have at your disposal in the tech ops unit to try to develop suspects in this case?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Well, several, but one of the first that we considered was what we call a tower dump.
MS. NORRIS: What is a tower dump?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: If I can switch here.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So the investigators learned the movements and times.
MS. NORRIS: Let me ask it this way. The morning of the murder, did you know, based on the evidence that TPD had, what Daniel Markel's movements were prior to being shot in his garage?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, I did.
MS. NORRIS: And what were those movements?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We knew that he had departed his house and traveled to his children's daycare, dropping his children off there, and then proceeded on to the Premier Health and Fitness gym, and then back to his residence. And we knew the approximate times that he left and arrived at each of those general areas.
MS. NORRIS: Did TPD have any reason to believe that Mr. Markel was being followed the morning prior to being shot?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, we did.
MS. NORRIS: And what was that based on?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That included the video from Premier, where we see the Prius come into the parking lot just after, and leave following as well.
MS. NORRIS: So knowing, or believing, that he was at these different locations — we'll strike that. Did you also have approximate timeframes for which he was at each of those locations: his home, the preschool, the gym, and back home?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, we did.
MS. NORRIS: Having that information, was there a tool that law enforcement had available that it could use to try to hone in on who might have been the suspect vehicle following Daniel Markel?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. Again, knowing that we had three unique locations and four timeframes, and knowing that, again, most people have and utilize cell phones, we know that any cell phone that was in any of those particular locations would likely communicate with a certain number of cell sites immediately around that area.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So by obtaining all the records of the events that went through those cell sites from each of the different carriers, then we could try to compare those data sets and see which handsets were near his residence, near the preschool, near Premier, at the same times that Mr. Markel was. That would likely result in a suspect phone number for us.
MS. NORRIS: When you say cell sites, can you kind of tell me — like I'm a five-year-old — what a cell site is?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Sure. Your cell phone is a very elaborate radio, and it communicates with cell sites, or cell towers, to exchange information. Again, we know where those towers are, we know where they're located in town, and that helps us, again, to determine that area that we're going to look at. But the cell phone — any transaction that it does, be that a voice call, a text message, or a data session — we know it's going to be processed through a cell site or a cell tower.
MS. NORRIS: So the idea here was to look for any phone companies who have cell sites or cell towers in these three respective locations, and get data from them about every single handset that's communicating with their company's towers within the parameters of that circle?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. And parameters of the time — we looked at those very narrow timeframes.
MS. NORRIS: And what phone companies were believed to have cell sites or towers in these three respective locations?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We have four here, and that is T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint.
MS. NORRIS: So TPD subpoenaed or got a search warrant for those records from each of the phone companies?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, we did.
MS. NORRIS: May I approach, Your Honor?
JUDGE HANKINSON: No.
MS. NORRIS: I'm showing you report 139.
MS. NORRIS: Do you recognize that CD?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do.
MS. NORRIS: And how do you recognize it?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Again, by my initials on the disc.
MS. NORRIS: And what is contained on it?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: The results of the tower dump search warrant from T-Mobile. Again, my initials on the disc — the search warrant results from AT&T.
MS. NORRIS: The search warrant results — excuse me — from AT&T. Did those contain a certificate of authenticity from the phone company that these are in fact the tower dump records from the areas and timeframes you requested?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, they did.
MS. NORRIS: All right. At this time I'd offer into evidence State's Exhibit 140.
JUDGE HANKINSON: Is there an objection?
MR. ZANGENEH: Give me a second, Judge.
MR. ZANGENEH: Not with regards to this testimony, Judge, no objection.
JUDGE HANKINSON: 140 will be admitted.
MS. NORRIS: Now showing you what I've marked for identification as State's Exhibit 141.
MS. NORRIS: Do you recognize that CD?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, I do.
MS. NORRIS: Do you recognize it because you reviewed it and put your signature on the disc?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, I did.
MS. NORRIS: And what is contained on State's 141?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: These would be the tower dump results from Verizon.
MS. NORRIS: And do those as well contain a certificate of authenticity from Verizon attesting that the tower dump records contained therein are accurate and maintained by the business?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They do.
MS. NORRIS: Your Honor, at this time I'd offer State's Exhibit 141.
MS. NORRIS: And the same for the results from Sprint?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, they do.
JUDGE HANKINSON: Any objection?
MR. ZANGENEH: No.
MR. DECOSTE: No objection.
JUDGE HANKINSON: It'll be admitted.
MS. NORRIS: Sergeant Corbitt, the last couple of discs we went over — these are the tower dump results from T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T.
MS. NORRIS: Are they two very voluminous — hundreds and thousands of pages of data?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They are, again, yes.
MS. NORRIS: And did you review them in this case?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I did, yes.
MS. NORRIS: So how exactly did you use those records? Once you get the responses from each of the phone companies, what do you do?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Well, the response largely for us just contains a list of phone numbers that were present in those locations, or utilizing those cell sites, in the timeframe that we requested.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: As I explained earlier, normally we would look at commonalities in each of those locations and try to filter out a suspect number, but we did not find something that immediately stood out, or something that was common to all of those locations.
MS. NORRIS: So in summary, you're looking for a phone number that appears during each of those timeframes at each of those four — technically it's three locations, but four different timeframes — that Dan Markel was at, to see if there's any number that pops up in the results at that location. And you didn't find such a commonality at all?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We did not. Not in all the locations.
MS. NORRIS: Does that mean that the suspect phone was not at those particular locations, that it didn't appear on the phone records?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: No. If the handset is not creating events — if it's not placing voice calls or text messages or data sessions at those times when it's near those locations — then we're not going to see it in the records. If it's not doing events, we won't see those events in any records.
MS. NORRIS: So no event, meaning no call and no text.
JUDGE HANKINSON: Let's not just repeat the test each time. Let's move on.
MS. NORRIS: Yes, sir.
MS. NORRIS: So you can't find one with the commonality. So then what do you do with these tower dump records?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Eventually, we knew that we had obtained a number of records for those persons involved in our investigation. And so the idea was, well, let's compare all the people that our known subjects have communicated with. Let's compare those with the phones that were in the tower dump, and let's see if there's anything common between any of our people and some of the phones that may have been near one or more of the locations.
MS. NORRIS: Whose phone numbers did you run against the tower dumps?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Everything we had at the time. And of course the investigation progressed over a lengthy period of time, and we continued to gain more and more records as we went. But at the time, we had at least a reasonable number of records for the Adelson family and some other people that were related to the investigation.
MS. NORRIS: Can you show the jury the type of data that you get on the discs we just discussed, and admitted into evidence, from a phone company when you request call detail records?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. As I mentioned earlier, one of the basic pieces of information that we're able to get would be subscriber information.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: This is just a sample subscriber sheet, but it gives us some basic information about the account and who may be utilizing the phone or paying the bills, those kinds of things. So that's, again, one of the most basic pieces we get — the subscriber information.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I'd mentioned before, call detail records. These are, again, sample call detail records. And while there appears to be a lot of information in there, really there's about three sections that are most important to us. There's a section that contains the date and time and duration of an event, so that we know when an event happens — and again, when I say event, I mean a voice call, a text message, or in some cases a data session.
MS. NORRIS: Sergeant Corbitt, can I interrupt you? If you could use that laser pointer up to your right and just, as you're going through, show us the date and time, for example, on this particular slide that you were referring to.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. Again, so here would be our date.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: This would be the time of the event, and we see for these particular records that time is provided in UTC, or Coordinated Universal Time. So we know for some of our records we have to make a time adjustment to get to our local time here.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: And then this would be the seizure time — the amount of time that the handset seizes the network to complete the call. And then this would be the elapsed time, or how long the call actually occurred.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: In this case, it's two minutes and 11 seconds, just as an example.
MS. NORRIS: Okay. And I'm sorry I interrupted you. If you could then show us the information you get about who's calling who, or who's texting who.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Right. So then the other important piece for us is the phone numbers that are communicating. So we can see the originating number — this will be the person that's making the call or sending the text message — and we have the terminating number, and that will be the person that's receiving it. So that tells us, again, who is communicating with who.
MS. NORRIS: So you compared all of the records that you had — I know we just saw a sample from Harvey Adelson's — but you compared all of those records to the tower dumps? Walk me through that process.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We did.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We have analytical software which helps us — again, knowing that we have so many thousands of records, we're able to just ask it to show us commonalities. And what we found was there was a cell phone number, the 786-372-5986, that was present in our tower dump.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That was also present in Harvey Adelson's cell phone records.
MS. NORRIS: What does that mean, it was present in his records?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It had — there was an event in his records with that phone number. In this case, it happened to be an incoming phone call on July 1st.
MS. NORRIS: So Harvey Adelson's phone had an incoming call on July 1st from this 786-372-5986 number.
MS. NORRIS: Is that right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. NORRIS: And that phone number ending in 5986 was one that we got from the tower dump records we first subpoenaed?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. NORRIS: Okay. So then what did you do?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Well, then we obtained more detailed records for that target number, and that was the number that we eventually determined belonged to Mr. Garcia. So we were able to obtain records from T-Mobile for that and then do some basic analysis on that phone number.
MS. NORRIS: Can you use phone records provided by the companies to determine what phone number a particular handset communicates with most frequently?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, we can.
MS. NORRIS: Tell me about how that's done.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Again, with the help of some software or spreadsheets, we're able to look at all the incoming, outgoing phone calls, determine the unique numbers that a handset communicates with, and then also determine the frequency — how often one phone number communicates with another. That helps us with a lot of things in determining relationships, or, you know, friends, co-conspirators, those kinds of things. Who a phone communicates with most frequently is probably someone that's significant to them.
MS. NORRIS: And that's called a frequency report?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. NORRIS: Did you run a frequency report — excuse me — on Mr. Sigfredo Garcia's phone records?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We did, yes.
MS. NORRIS: And what were the results?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Well, what we found was the most frequently — the most frequently contacted number was the 786-564-1312 of Ms. Magbanua.
MS. NORRIS: What time frame are we looking at when we ran this frequency report?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Well, in this particular one here, you're looking at May into July.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Again, as the investigation progressed and we obtained more and more records, then those frequencies are going to change, because now we're adding more and more phone records into it. But at any particular time we run, you know, again, this by a fairly large percentage was its most frequent caller.
MS. NORRIS: And you said the time frame for this particular frequency report was May to July of what year?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: 2014.
MS. NORRIS: So it's just a three-month period that this is based off of?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. NORRIS: Did you cross-reference Katherine Magbanua's phone number, this 786 number ending in 1312, with any of the other records that you had for people associated with this case?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We did. We found that this phone number was also common to Charlie Adelson's phone, and in a similar frequency report for his cell phone we see that it's also one of the most frequently contacted numbers.
MS. NORRIS: And that's what you're showing us here with the 7 percent frequency?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. NORRIS: Earlier you'd shown us the frequency report for Sigfredo Garcia's cell phone records indicating Ms. Magbanua was on the top. What about the other numbers that were called frequently? Did you do anything with those numbers?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. Again, as the investigation progressed, it was decided we could look at all of the contacts that Mr. Garcia had and compare those again back to the tower dump results to see if anyone that he communicated with frequently also happened to be here in Tallahassee near one of those cell sites, near one of our interested times.
MS. NORRIS: And what were the results from that comparison?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: What we found here was that the 305-570-8153 of Mr. Rivera is in the top callers of Mr. Garcia's phone and was also present in our tower dump results from AT&T.
MS. NORRIS: The phone records you had for Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera from July 18, 2014 — did they contain the location information you previously indicated these phone records typically provide?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, they did.
MS. NORRIS: Were you able to compare the location information for the events they had on their handsets with the movements of Daniel Markel on that date?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, we were.
MS. NORRIS: And what did you find out?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Well, again, looking just at those narrow time frames, we look in those cell phone records, and one of the other sections in there is location information. These records are T-Mobile, but they provide us a latitude and longitude for the cell site, and this is the location of the actual antenna or tower or structure or whatever it is that this radio equipment is mounted on. They give us that latitude, so we're able to take that information and put it on a map and determine where that cell site is actually located.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We can see here for those two events that cell site is located just north of I-10 and a little west of Thomasville Road there.
MS. NORRIS: Did Mr. Garcia or Mr. Rivera have a lot of events around the time of the actual murder?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They did not, actually, no.
MS. NORRIS: What about earlier on in the morning?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Not in the time frames that we're talking about here, from where Mr. Markel left his residence. There were really very few events for these handsets.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: And really most of them center around this particular location right here at Premier Health and Fitness.
MS. NORRIS: Can you expound on the two events you have here at 9:36 and 9:58 a.m. near Premier?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. So again, we're provided with that location of where the cell site is. And sometimes just knowing where the cell site itself is is all the real information that we need. That tells us enough.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: If someone says that they're in Miami but they're communicating with a cell site in Tallahassee, it really doesn't matter what side of that cell site they're communicating with — I know that they're not anywhere near Miami.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: But we do know that most of our cell sites are actually broken down into multiple sides or sectors. So they have antennas that are facing in certain directions away from that cell site. We also get that information from the cell carrier, so in addition to the location of the cell site, we know that orientation, or the direction that those antennas are facing, and that helps us narrow down the location that a handset could possibly be in for any particular event.
MS. NORRIS: On this slide, you have orange indicated for the 9:36 and 9:58. That indicates Garcia's records?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That is correct, yes. Yes.
MS. NORRIS: Okay. And can you show us what particular cell site location was being used, with the sectors you just described?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. So this cell site from T-Mobile is, as most are, broken down into three sectors. And we can see that the orange arrows here are pointing in the direction that those antennas face. So we know that that cell site again has three sides to it, or sectors. We do get information as to which one of those the handset is using.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: What we know is that if you were to just drive in circles around a cell site on your cell phone, your handset is going to transition from one of those sectors to the next to the next as you continue to drive in a circle.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: The dash lines here represent kind of an approximate area where that might happen. We expect one cell site — or one sector — to cover about halfway to the other sector, and the same thing for the last. So by estimating where that transition is, we kind of get an idea of the width of that cell site, or, again, the approximate location where that handset could be.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: In the records themselves, we see that T-Mobile tells us the handset is using the cell site oriented at 40 degrees.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: And if we look at that on our particular cell site, that's emphasized by the large orange arrow. So that is the cell site and sector that the handset was communicating with. — that particular event is the cell site and sector that Sigfredo Garcia's handset is using for these two events.
MS. NORRIS: Is that consistent with the cell sites that would service people at the Premier fitness club?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, it is.
MS. NORRIS: Did you do the same type of location analysis for Luis Rivera's phone records?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, we did.
MS. NORRIS: Did he have any events with location information?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: He did. And these are AT&T records. The information looks a little different, but it's the same basic information.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We have the location of the cell site and the sector that's being utilized.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We can look at those cell sites and then, in further, the actual sectors that are being communicated with for those events.
MS. NORRIS: Same thing we just did for Mr. Garcia, here in blue — the big arrows represented the direction of the sector of the cell site that's being used during the event?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct, yes.
MS. NORRIS: You mentioned that there were two different phone companies. Garcia had T-Mobile?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. NORRIS: And Luis Rivera had AT&T records. If you're using a different phone company as your phone provider, you'd be using different towers, is that right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct. Each carrier has its own infrastructure, or its own towers.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There are cases where a handset may roam to another carrier. But for us, the four carriers that we mentioned earlier — the AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile — all have their own equipment.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So while two people may be standing in the same place, if they have two different carriers, they could communicate with two very different cell sites — one in one direction, one in another. And it's based upon their particular carrier's cell sites.
MS. NORRIS: So based on the location information, are both handsets consistent with using the towers at Premier Gym, or Premier Fitness Center?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. For a handset that was in the parking lot, these are the cell sites and sectors that I would expect that handset to communicate with.
MS. NORRIS: Can you tell us exactly where on this map a certain handset is, precisely?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Absolutely not. I'm providing a general area, a general location that the handset could have been in. Our historical cell phone analysis is about including and excluding locations.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: So I'm asked, is the Premier Health and Fitness — is that address an address that would be serviced by these particular cell sites and sectors? And I look at these, and I look at where the adjacent or the next closest cell sites are, and you can see there's some distance away. And I would say yes, the Premier Health and Fitness is certainly an address that would be serviced by these particular cell sites and sectors.
MS. NORRIS: Is it fair to say that pretty much all of the events that we have right around this time of the murder are consistent with the Premier fitness club?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. NORRIS: Let's say that these two handsets had been at Creative Preschool prior to going to Premier Gym, but had had no events. Would that be possibly a reason that they didn't show up on that tower dump when we were looking for commonalities?
MR. ZANGENEH: Objection, Judge. Calls for speculation.
JUDGE HANKINSON: Overruled.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: In looking at the records that we obtained for both of these, we know that there were no events in that time frame. So if there are no events in that time frame, we have no locations in which to say where a handset may have been or may not have been. So yes, in answer to the question, because there were no events, they did not show up in those tower dump results.
MS. NORRIS: If there are no events for a handset for a certain time period, is that consistent with that handset being powered down or turned off?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There are a number of reasons that a handset may not have events. You may simply not be using it or doing anything active with it, and maybe just not receiving any phone calls or text messages. Your phone could have gone dead, the battery died on it, where it's no longer in communication. You could be so far away from a cell phone tower that you're unreachable to the network. Or, yes — one of the options is that you powered down that handset as well.
MS. NORRIS: By the time that TPD had requested these tower dump records from the phone companies and performed the analysis you just walked the jury through, had Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera been developed as suspects in this case?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MS. NORRIS: And did you do much more extensive analysis of the phone records that we talked about earlier?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, we did.
MS. NORRIS: And we'll talk about that later, is that right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, we will.
MS. NORRIS: One moment, Your Honor.
MS. NORRIS: Thank you, Sergeant. I have no further questions.
JUDGE HANKINSON: Cross.
MR. ZANGENEH: Thank you, Judge.
MR. ZANGENEH: Sergeant.
MR. ZANGENEH: Good afternoon.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Good afternoon.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay. I say "Sergeant" because you are a member of law enforcement, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. ZANGENEH: — members of the jury, you've been a member of law enforcement for coming on a quarter of a century, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Just with TPD, yes.
MR. ZANGENEH: Just with TPD?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, sir.
MR. ZANGENEH: What about before that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I was a reserve deputy with the Wakulla County Sheriff's Office starting in 19—
MR. ZANGENEH: So there's more law enforcement experience behind the 25 years?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay. How much more?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Since 1995.
MR. ZANGENEH: 1995. So my math here is —
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I'm sorry — 1992.
MR. ZANGENEH: My apologies.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It's okay.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay, so 8 plus 19, 27 years?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Sounds about right, yes.
MR. ZANGENEH: And you indicated on direct examination that you have testified in 65 cases?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, sir.
MR. ZANGENEH: How many of those cases have you testified on behalf of the state?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: In all of those cases.
MR. ZANGENEH: So all 65?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct, yes.
MR. ZANGENEH: So that means that you have never testified for a defendant.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: While I have helped defense counsel, those cases have never resulted in actual testimony.
MR. ZANGENEH: So the answer to my question is that you have never testified in trial for the defense. Is that correct?
MR. ZANGENEH: In addition to all your trial testimony being with the government, you're also married to a prosecutor. Isn't that correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I am, yes.
MR. ZANGENEH: And you're married to a prosecutor that works with the prosecutor sitting right behind you. Is that correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct, yes.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MR. ZANGENEH: So you're at the helm of the demonstrative aid, is that correct, sir?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, I am.
MR. ZANGENEH: If you could indulge me.
MR. ZANGENEH: You indicated that there was two — well, let's go to the demonstratives.
MR. ZANGENEH: You'll see the one on the far right side in the middle. It has my client's name on it, is that correct, sir?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It does, yes.
MR. ZANGENEH: And you'll agree with me that to the right of his name in white is a telephone number starting with area code 786, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MR. ZANGENEH: 786-372-5986, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, sir.
MR. ZANGENEH: All right. And you'll also agree with me that all the investigation that you've done with regards to any phone number associated with my client is that number there?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: No, sir.
MR. ZANGENEH: But I only see one number up there.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, sir. Okay, the question is — in the initial part of the investigation, this was the cell phone number Mr. Garcia had. As we progressed through the years of the investigation, he had other phone numbers as well, and there was work done on those phone numbers.
MR. ZANGENEH: Do you have those numbers with you?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do not have them in front of me, but I could get them, sir.
MR. ZANGENEH: And were they expired numbers, numbers that he was no longer using?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I believe so, yes. Well, there was a time in the investigation where we were looking at it in real time, where we were getting real-time information. Obviously the cell phone that he had at that time was active and live, because we were obtaining real-time information from it. Some of the other phone numbers that he may have had in the interim were probably no longer functional numbers.
MR. ZANGENEH: What about the other phone that he was arrested with in Broward County? Did you do your due diligence on that phone?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, sir, we did.
MR. ZANGENEH: So just to be clear, there was a second phone that he was arrested with, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, sir, there was.
MR. ZANGENEH: And do you have the information as to when that phone was activated?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Not in front of me.
MS. NORRIS: Objection. Outside the scope.
JUDGE HANKINSON: I'll sustain the objection.
MR. ZANGENEH: May we come sidebar?
JUDGE HANKINSON: Okay.
MR. ZANGENEH: So, we'll get to that other stuff later. If you wouldn't min, Sergeant Corbitt, you had two phone numbers on the 786-372-5986 number that were the basis of the activation of the cell towers, and I believe that's a call at 9:36 and 46 seconds.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I'm sorry, you're speaking of these events?
MR. ZANGENEH: Yes, sir. Yeah, the top of that, the 9:36 event.
MR. ZANGENEH: That was a seven-second phone call, is that correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I believe so, yes. We can pull up the full records if we need to, but —
MR. ZANGENEH: Well, if you need to look at something to refresh your recollection to be able to adequately and properly advise the jury, please, do your due diligence. When you're ready, let me know.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: For the location information, the duration of the event was not relevant.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay, well, with all due respect, that's not what I'm asking you. I'm asking you if it was a seven-second phone call.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Okay, then let me get to the actual records and I'll tell you more about that event. Yes, sir, the 9:36 event was for seven seconds. The 9:58 shows a minute.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay. Now, the 9:58 event — I'm sorry, let's start — let's stick with the 9:36 event. That came from a 786 number, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, sir, it did.
MR. ZANGENEH: And correct me if I'm wrong, but law enforcement has the ability, based on the phone number, to try to determine who the person that extended this call is. Is that correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. ZANGENEH: In the 9:58 and 11 seconds, the second, I guess, event on the 18th, if you look at the phone records, there are a slew of calls that have the exact duration of one minute. Is that indicative of a text message, or is that a phone call?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It is indicative of a text message.
MR. ZANGENEH: So at 9:58 —
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I'm sorry, let me clarify. The duration is not indicative of a text message. We do see one minute as the listed duration, but there are other indicators in the records that tell us that that is in fact a text message, because you could have a voice call that was one minute.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay, thank you for clearing that up. So on those two events, one appears — well, we know for sure one is a seven-second phone call, right? The top one, the number that we talked about, 786-317-8493, that's a seven-second phone call, correct, Sergeant?
MR. ZANGENEH: And the second is an incoming text message.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That is correct.
MR. ZANGENEH: And the incoming text message, do you have a phone number for that incoming text message?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It's a short number, but yes — the 326-65040.
MR. ZANGENEH: 326 — let's see here — 326-65, 65-040. Zero-four-zero. Those numbers don't add up.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They don't.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay. Is there a return text message to that number?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There is not.
MR. ZANGENEH: Now because Well, let me ask you a quick question about Luis Rivera. You have that number right there — that's his number that you have associated with him, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. ZANGENEH: And have you been proactive in this investigation? If the government gets new information, they give it to you. Do you do your due diligence?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, sir.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay. And you're aware that Luis Rivera gave a statement on October 4th, 2016, when he began cooperating with the government?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I don't recall the exact date, but I do know that he's provided statements.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay. And he also discussed having multiple phones. You're aware of that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I am, yes.
MR. ZANGENEH: Now you talked earlier with regards to tower range, is that correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I did not really speak with range. I spoke with an approximate area a handset could be, yes.
MR. ZANGENEH: Well, a lot of your testimony was based on the location of the tower, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, absolutely.
MR. ZANGENEH: Did you ever go and take specific measurements, you yourself, from that tower?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: No, we did not.
MR. ZANGENEH: Did you have the ability to do that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We could have secured the ability, yes.
MR. ZANGENEH: But you chose not to. I withdraw that question. Are you able to truly know the true range without measuring that?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: You're talking of a particular cell site, correct? And it depends on what you mean by measuring, but I assume you're talking about a drive test or something to that effect.
MR. ZANGENEH: Well, I mean, you're the expert. Okay? I'm not. I'm simply saying that when you go out there, if you have the ability to measure or take measurements of a tower to make sure that the information that you're giving to a jury is correct — would you agree that without doing that exact measurement, anything that you tell this jury is a potential — it's a guess?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: No, I would not say that at all. What I'm speaking about, and the evidence that I have, is these cell sites that are being communicated with and the orientation of those sectors, and we know which way they're pointing. We look at addresses and we say, could this address have been included or not? And in all of the cases that I have, that determination is easy to make. And they're relatively close to the cell sites, and they're where we expect them to be, and there's really no need to do anything additional.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: One of the problems with the drive test is coming back in time, and it would always be argued that if you didn't do it the same day and the same time and the same weather conditions and the same everything as that exact day, then even that's still not exact, and even that has variation to it. So we had the information that we needed to make the determinations that we did. And again, in no way am I saying exactly where a handset is. I'm just giving the general area that that cell site covers.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay, well, let's do that. Let's give the general area that that cell site covers. Based on your demonstrative aid that we're looking at up here, what other locations fall within that general area? Are there any restaurants in that general area?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There are.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay, which ones?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Well, there are a number of restaurants, and let me pull this up here. Not being quite the travel guide, there are a number of restaurants in the shopping center there. There are restaurants — so there are a number of restaurants within that area. There's, from Thomasville and Killarney, the Applebee's, there's a Wendy's, there's all kinds of restaurants in the shopping center across the flyover. A number of restaurants.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay. Well, being the fact that you indicated that you've lived here coming on a few decades, maybe more, let's talk about each specific restaurant. You said that there's an Applebee's.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There is, or at least was, yes.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay. And there's a Wendy's.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There is.
MR. ZANGENEH: Is there a Chick-fil-A?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There is, but I do not believe that the Chick-fil-A would be in this particular cell site and sector.
MR. ZANGENEH: Is there a McDonald's?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There is, yes.
MR. ZANGENEH: Right by the Residence Inn, right? Right across the street from the Residence Inn?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There's a McDonald's at just north of, or between Timberlane and — or between Market and McLean Commerce.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There's a McDonald's.
MR. ZANGENEH: What other restaurants are there?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Well, sir, there is — in the shopping center, I know that there is a Bonefish Grill there, at least used to be. I believe a Firehouse Subs in there. There may be a sushi restaurant in there, and I'm trying to remember back in 2014. There is a chicken restaurant on Thomasville Road.
MR. ZANGENEH: So we've discussed one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight potential restaurants now. There could be more, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay. And you'll agree with me that out of those, at least Wendy's and McDonald's and Chick-fil-A serve breakfast.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: They do, yes.
MR. ZANGENEH: And the incident, or the date of this incident, occurred on July 18th. And that's not a Sunday. That's a Sunday. That's a weekday, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. ZANGENEH: So all three of these stores are open at the time — at least those three?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I have no personal knowledge that all of those restaurants were open on that day and time, but I have no reason to believe they were not.
MR. ZANGENEH: What other stores or locations are in that general area? Are there any hotels in that general area?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There are.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay. Can you tell the members of the jury which hotels are there?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Again — and I'm not sure, in 2014 there was a Motel 6 right here at Timberlane Road and Thomasville. There is.
MR. ZANGENEH: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you're talking out of — so you said a Motel 6?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There was at one time. I'm not sure when that ceased operation, but it was there.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay, and that was on what road, sir?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That was Thomasville and Timberlane.
MR. ZANGENEH: Thomasville and Timberlane.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay, what else, sir?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I'm not aware of other hotels right there. There are some on the southern side of that, which I don't know. There's, I believe, a Residence Inn, maybe a Hampton Inn, something here that's off of Raymond Diehl.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I'd be happy to bring up Google, and we could get more specific if we need to.
MR. ZANGENEH: Well, I'll tell you what. I know that the government indicated they're going to call you multiple times, and I'll be more prepared so we can go over that Google map the second time. Okay. All right, so let me ask you some questions with regards to factors that could potentially impact the range of the cell towers. Are there certain factors that could impact the range of cell towers?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There are, yes.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay. Can you explain to me what a down tilt or a down angle of the antenna is?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We're talking about the — we talked about each cell site has a set of antennas on it, right, that direct energy out. So the angle that those things are pointed is one thing that we're aware of, and then the down tilt would be if they're pointed down or up, because we don't want to direct that signal off into the air, right? So each cell site has an angle that those antennas are mounted at to help control that distribution of that energy.
MR. ZANGENEH: And you'll agree with me that whether or not there's a down tilt could potentially affect the range of the tower, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It could, yes.
MR. ZANGENEH: Did we know if there was a tilt with regards to the specific tower at the time of the incident?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: All the antennas have an angle in which they're mounted. Whether it's up or down, they all have an angle in which they're mounted.
MR. ZANGENEH: Do you know the down angle of the antenna serving Premier?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do not.
MR. ZANGENEH: Can you tell whether a call is made inside or outside the serving area? I'm sorry, can you tell whether or not a call is made inside the — I assume, based on the cell tower or the antenna angles that you have, can you make a determination as to whether or not a cell call is coming from within or outside of that area?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Not quite sure I understand the question. Let me — where the call is coming from could be anywhere. If you're speaking about the location of the handset, then again, no, I would not believe that it's outside of that area, because if they were outside of that area they would communicate with a different cell site.
MR. ZANGENEH: Do you know if T-Mobile had done any maintenance to that cell tower or those cell sites?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do not.
MR. ZANGENEH: Is that something that you'd be able to determine if you made the appropriate calls?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Sometimes we can and sometimes we cannot.
MR. ZANGENEH: Are you familiar with any studies validating the use of cell tower analysis?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes.
MR. ZANGENEH: Which ones?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Specifically, the Scientific Working Group.
MR. ZANGENEH: Anything else?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I can provide some additional studies and things. Again, I don't have those with me, but I do have some documents, yes.
MR. ZANGENEH: Yes. So the only one. You've been qualified as an expert, 65 cases, sir?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, sir.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay. All 65 for the government, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, sir.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay. And in preparation to testify as an expert with regards to the specific issue that we're talking about, which is cell tower analysis, you're indicating that you're only familiar with one publication?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Off the top of my head, publication-wise, yes.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay. Okay, the two events that you have associated with Sigfredo Garcia. Let's talk specifically about the seven-second phone call. Because you'll agree with me that an incoming text message doesn't suggest that there's activity, correct? It simply means someone sent you a text, right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. ZANGENEH: Okay. You can't tell who picked up Garcia's phone at 9:36 on July 18th, 2014, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. ZANGENEH: And you can't determine whether or not Mr. Rivera was in possession of Mr. Garcia's phone, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct. Correct.
MR. ZANGENEH: You'll agree with me that a manner in which to confirm who answered the phone would be to provide the information of the caller that made the call, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, sir.
MR. ZANGENEH: And I just want to confirm this: that the cell phone records can't put a particular device at a particular location, right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That is correct.
MR. ZANGENEH: Correct. So while you could put up a map, a little chart like you have up here, a demonstrative, and you could put a marking showing what you believe to be the ranges, it's simply a guess, correct?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I wouldn't call it a guess, but I think —
MR. ZANGENEH: Let me rephrase it then, sir.
MR. ZANGENEH: You can't tell me specifically where Mr. Garcia was the morning of July 18th, can you?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct, I cannot.
MR. ZANGENEH: No further questions.
JUDGE HANKINSON: Magbanua.
MR. DECOSTE: Yes, Your Honor. As always, mine will be very brief.
MR. DECOSTE: Just to confirm, you work with the Tallahassee Police Department, right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do, yes.
MR. DECOSTE: You're in the same building as all the investigators and other sergeants that will be testifying in this trial on this case?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. DECOSTE: Now, through that and your work in the Technical Operations Unit, you know the working theory of this case, of this prosecution?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do, yes.
MR. DECOSTE: All right. So, if you could bring up the frequency slide. Next slide, whichever one you want to go with first.
MR. DECOSTE: Please explain to the jury what this is again.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Again, with the use of our analytical software, we're able to produce a report that just tells us which phone numbers are communicated with by a particular phone most frequently. It doesn't take into account directionality — they could be all incoming or outgoing or a combination thereof, and they could be both text messages and voice calls or any combination thereof.
MR. DECOSTE: Who are these communications between? Between what people, from your boards?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: This — the top one is Mr. Garcia's phone number. These are the records for him, and the phone number that's highlighted here is Ms. Magbanua.
MR. DECOSTE: All right, so he communicated with Ms. Magbanua. You've got 1,635 times her phone number appears in his records with that frequency, that many times. Now, when you say communicated, that doesn't necessarily mean they actually spoke 1,649 times?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We look at not necessarily the specific number of the records, but the relative frequency — whether they communicated or tried to communicate. The percentage, or the volume of records, is what we look at.
MR. DECOSTE: Can we agree they talked a lot?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, we can.
MR. DECOSTE: You don't have the contents of these communications, of these ones, of these?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I do not.
MR. DECOSTE: All right, so at best you can say that Katherine Magbanua, my client, communicated with the father of her two children a lot.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. DECOSTE: Let's go to the next one, please. Now what we have here is the communications in between Charlie Adelson and Katherine Magbanua, right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. DECOSTE: The same thing applies, that this isn't just all phone calls — it's all potential communications, or however you phrased it?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct, yes.
MR. DECOSTE: We can agree that they talked a lot?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We can.
MR. DECOSTE: You don't have the contents of those communications those specific communications. Let me rephrase that question. You don't have recordings of phone calls in between these two for that frequency, do you?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: No, I do not.
MR. DECOSTE: All right. So, and again, you know the working theory.
MR. DECOSTE: At best, you can say that Katherine Magbanua was talking to the guy a lot that she was dating at the time.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. DECOSTE: Now, please don't take this as an attack, but Technical Operations and what you do, it's somewhat limited, right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I'm not sure in what way.
MR. DECOSTE: Human-to-human connections. It's limited because there's other ways that humans can communicate, right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, there are other ways that humans can communicate.
MR. DECOSTE: Now, let's just stick with electronics. There are certain apps that can be used, like WhatsApp, that you wouldn't necessarily have access to.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. DECOSTE: Unless you have the physical phone.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. DECOSTE: All right, that's one way, and that's an electronic thing — people can communicate that way.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It is, yes.
MR. DECOSTE: Now, people can also have face-to-face interactions. There used to be a day when people did that.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. DECOSTE: Now, your — do I call it a science? What would you call it?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I believe it is a science, yes.
MR. DECOSTE: All right, so your science is limited because it doesn't encompass all of those other potential connections.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I don't want to say it doesn't encompass.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: We're aware of when WhatsApp is in use, and we of course advise the investigators and attempt any way to be able to get that content, get hands on a particular handset so that we can get that communication. So we're very much aware that those other methods of communication, such as iMessage or anything else, can be used, and so we try to let the investigators know, hey, this is something that you need to be aware of and work towards. So it's more a limitation of what the provider, the phone company, and the app producers are able to provide for us than it is a limitation of ours.
MR. DECOSTE: But you agree with me it's limited with respect to all of the different ways that humans can communicate?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: It is limited, yes.
MR. DECOSTE: For instance, you wouldn't know the potential connections in between Sigfredo Garcia and Charlie Adelson, right?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I only know what I have or don't have in the records that I have.
MR. DECOSTE: So outside of anything electronic, you just wouldn't know?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. DECOSTE: For instance, if Luis Rivera has a connection to Charlie Adelson, you wouldn't know that either, would you?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: If it's not in the records that I have.
MR. DECOSTE: Sigfredo Garcia to Harvey Adelson — you wouldn't know that.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. DECOSTE: And these are all possible connections that don't include Katherine Magbanua.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MR. DECOSTE: One second, Your Honor.
MR. DECOSTE: Sergeant, just to clarify something that the State Attorney's Office asked you, and it has to do with the communications in between Wendi Adelson and Dan Markel. Because at the beginning of your direct examination, you talked about a phone call that was placed by Wendi Adelson to Dan Markel.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes. Yes.
MR. DECOSTE: Isn't it true that she was returning a phone call that he had placed to her earlier that morning?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, he had called her earlier that morning.
MR. DECOSTE: Just wanted to clear it up. Thank you.
JUDGE HANKINSON: Redirect.
MS. NORRIS: Without going into great detail, Mr. DeCoste asked you some questions about what your information is limited to.
MS. NORRIS: Do you also have access to all the other data that the Tallahassee Police Department was gathering against Sigfredo Garcia and Katherine Magbanua in this case in analyzing the phone records?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: I have access to a lot of it, and I'm not sure exactly what you're asking about, but my part of the investigation deals primarily with the electronics and the forensics that were conducted.
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Investigators were doing interviews and talking to people and gathering other types of evidence and all kinds of things, and I'm certainly not aware of every single thing that they had or collected or knew in the case. I know about what we communicated about.
MS. NORRIS: But you did communicate — communicate, excuse me — about relevant things outside of just the vacuum of these phone records?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct. Yes.
MS. NORRIS: And Mr. Zangeneh asked you some questions about the map with the towers. If you could get back to that for me — showing Premier. Okay. How many cell sites or towers are there in Tallahassee?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: There are a number of cells — like hundreds, between all the carriers, and—
MS. NORRIS: Were you able to narrow down the number of towers around the Premier gym area?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, we were.
MS. NORRIS: Okay. And approximately — are you showing me all those towers?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, these would be the towers from 2014 for T-Mobile, just the one carrier. So in determining that general area, approximate area a handset could be in, we certainly are aware of where those other cell sites are, because we know that generally that effective range is going to be affected by where the other towers are. So we are aware of those, yes.
MS. NORRIS: Could you zoom in just a little bit on the flag of Premier Gym and Fitness? And how many towers nearby that area can you see there for T-Mobile?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Right here, there's only one additional one, and that would be — I'm sorry, I'll use the laser — that would be the cell site here.
MS. NORRIS: So would you expect, if someone has a handset at Premier Health and Fitness—
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, I do.
MS. NORRIS: —of all the hundreds, Mr. Garcia's is communicating with that one right by Premier?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: That's correct.
MS. NORRIS: Thank you, Sergeant. I have no further questions.
JUDGE HANKINSON: Does any juror have a question? Go sidebar.
JUDGE HANKINSON: Follow-up question from the jury. Sergeant, can other items that a phone is being used for cause it to come in contact with the tower besides phone calls or text messages? And I think the jurors said, for instance, if they're using the internet, is it going to show up with this type of entry?
CHRISTOPHER CORBITT: Yes, sir. In some cases. I'm sorry, is that the answer here? I talked about one of the possible events being a data session, in addition to the voice or text message. So while yes, the phone making or having an established data session — which would be necessary for Facebook or surfing the web or any of those kind of things — unfortunately we don't get that information from all the carriers. We do see data activity with AT&T, but we do not see it, for instance, with T-Mobile. So while yes, those do cause contact with the tower, we're not always able to see that information.
JUDGE HANKINSON: Ms. Norris, any follow-up?
MS. NORRIS: No, Your Honor.
JUDGE HANKINSON: Garcia?
MR. ZANGENEH: I'll reserve.
JUDGE HANKINSON: Okay. Magbanua? Any follow-up on this?
MR. DECOSTE: No, Your Honor.
JUDGE HANKINSON: All right. You can step down, remain under the rule, and be subject to recall.
JUDGE HANKINSON: Will we take 15 minutes? Either side need anything?
MS. CAPPLEMAN: No, Your Honor.
JUDGE HANKINSON: All right. We'll be in recess for 15 minutes.