Jason Newlin — Direct/Cross/Redirect

MR. DECOSTE: Next witness is called Jason Newlin.

MR. DECOSTE: We have a message that has been sent to Jason Newlin that he's needed in the courtroom.

MR. DECOSTE: If you would please introduce yourself to the jury.

MR. DECOSTE: Now, throughout this trial, you've been in the courtroom during testimony, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Now, the reason for that is because you work very closely with these prosecutors, right?

MR. DECOSTE: You're actually integral on the part of organizing the evidence, the discovery, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Let's talk about that.

MR. DECOSTE: On any case, including this one, as the prosecution progresses, you receive from law enforcement reports, evidence, and that's organized by the State Attorney's Office, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Well, talking about your role — your role, you help out in the organization, in the review of the information as it comes in, correct?

MR. DECOSTE: And that includes evidence, police reports, right?

MR. DECOSTE: And then that's provided over to defense attorneys like myself during a case?

MR. DECOSTE: That's normal in all cases, right?

MR. DECOSTE: And actually, you're under an obligation that once you receive the information, reports, to give it over timely to the defense, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Yeah. You would agree with me that there's been times in this case that you've provided over to myself pieces of evidence?

MR. DECOSTE: Switch to another topic. Talk about the media on this case. Okay. You yourself, you appeared on Dateline, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Ms. Cappleman then, I believe, appeared on 20/20?

MR. DECOSTE: In those media appearances, the theory of the case was laid out, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Now, your Dateline interview, that was after Ms. Magbanua was arrested, right?

MR. DECOSTE: You would agree with me, though, that well prior to Ms. Magbanua's arrest there was a lot of publicity on this case. Prior to Ms. Magbanua's arrest, there's been a lot of publicity.

MR. DECOSTE: So Luis Rivera and Sigfredo Garcia are arrested in May of 2016?

MR. DECOSTE: Correct me if I'm wrong, there's a lot of media at that point, in May of '16?

MR. DECOSTE: And that media put out there the theory of the government, the people that they believed were behind it, the people that they believed were involved, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Now, in this case the probable cause affidavit for the arrest of Katherine Magbanua was actually leaked months before, right?

MR. DECOSTE: You would agree with me, though, that prior to October of 2016, or better yet prior to September of 2016, the government's theory of prosecution was out there. Who they believed was involved.

MR. DECOSTE: I want to make sure that you and I are on the same topic.

MR. DECOSTE: Luis Rivera and Sigfredo Garcia are arrested.

MR. DECOSTE: In the months after that — June, July, and August — there's attention on the case, right?

MR. DECOSTE: There's reports coming in. That's going over to the defense attorneys for Luis Rivera and Sigfredo Garcia?

MR. DECOSTE: There's news reports on the case, the theory behind it, right?

MR. DECOSTE: You've been over to Leon County Jail many times, right?

MR. DECOSTE: And at the beginning of his prosecution, Luis Rivera spent some time there?

MR. DECOSTE: They have television over there, don't they?

MR. DECOSTE: They also have phones?

MR. DECOSTE: We're talking about phones now, though?

MR. DECOSTE: So he'd be able to communicate with the outside world?

MR. DECOSTE: Now, back over to the topic of television. Even within the jail there's ways for inmates to communicate, right?

MR. DECOSTE: I mean, they go to the extent of sometimes talking through the toilets, right?

MR. DECOSTE: They find ways to communicate, right? Once in federal custody, Luis Rivera also has the ability to be able to email, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Now The means of communication, I mean, it goes to the extent that now they have a tablet that they can video chat with loved ones, right?

MR. DECOSTE: In May of 2016, Luis Rivera is arrested. Chuck Collins is appointed as his attorney, right?

MR. DECOSTE: All right. The theory again is out there. Luis Rivera cooperates, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Katherine Magbanua was then immediately arrested the following day.

MR. DECOSTE: Now, the goal of your office was to get Katherine to cooperate against Charlie Adelson, right?

MR. DECOSTE: I'm sorry?

MR. DECOSTE: To cooperate, correct?

MR. DECOSTE: If Ms. Magbanua would — I don't know how to put it — if she were to tell you that she wasn't involved, you wouldn't drop charges, would you?

MR. DECOSTE: In fact, she sat down with you and discussed the case, didn't she? Let's go, investigator.

MR. DECOSTE: Around the month of August of 2016, you were present in Jefferson County with Ms. Cappleman and others. Well, Mr. Rivera and his attorney David Collins were in another room, and notes were being passed back and forth, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Now, the purpose of that meeting was that he wanted to make a deal, to cooperate for you, right? For you and your office.

MR. DECOSTE: And if he had something to offer, a deal would be struck, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Yeah. You weren't in the room with Luis Rivera, were you?

MR. DECOSTE: But you were taking in the info, right?

MR. DECOSTE: It wasn't recorded?

MR. DECOSTE: But again, you're taking down details?

MR. DECOSTE: All right, but you're mentally taking it in, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Specifically about a gun, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Now, with the information that he gives on that day in August of 2016, you have enough of a mental picture that on August 15th you — You go out to a place, and you're looking for a body of water, a bridge near Interstate 10, between Tallahassee and the Interstate 75 corridor, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Now, I saw you look down. Do you have your report up there?

MR. DECOSTE: That's from August 29, 2016.

MR. DECOSTE: All right, so on August 15th you go out there, and you have enough specifics from the conversation with Luis Rivera that you go and spend the time to travel out there — again, that you're out near the Interstate 75 corridor, right?

MR. DECOSTE: We'll get to that in a second, but the point is here that with that exchange with Luis Rivera in the Jefferson County Jail, you get — and I agree, it's limited details — but you get details that then put you on the road, to drive out looking for this body of water, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Now, on August 26th you go back out, and you go to the Osceola River, right?

MR. DECOSTE: And you bring with you two other people from the State Attorney's Office?

MR. DECOSTE: Investigator Sparkman?

MR. DECOSTE: And analyst Balboni?

MR. DECOSTE: Now, analyst Balboni, he brings out a metal detector with him too, right?

MR. DECOSTE: So you have enough details from this exchange with Luis Rivera that you've got three personnel, you've got two trips, and you're driving around looking for a gun, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Luis Rivera never mentioned Katherine's name alongside those other details that you took in, did he?

MR. DECOSTE: We're talking about the information as it's flowing from Luis Rivera and his attorney over to yourself and the prosecutors. You're taking in information, details, enough so for you to do this investigation. Luis Rivera never mentioned Katherine.

MR. DECOSTE: Your deposition help you remember?

MR. DECOSTE: Page 39, starting on lines 24, continuing on to page 40. Starting—

MR. DECOSTE: Okay. We've got pages 39 through 40.

MR. DECOSTE: So the last two lines of page 39 and the first line of page 40.

MR. DECOSTE: And then you can also take a look at page 43, lines 1 through 3.

MR. DECOSTE: You have no memory of Luis Rivera giving information, through his attorney, over to you and your team, of Katherine's name. Is that accurate?

MR. DECOSTE: Now, but you remember the talk about the gun?

MR. DECOSTE: Yeah. So no deal was struck that day, right?

MR. DECOSTE: This is the day that you're at Jefferson County with Georgia Cappleman, Luis Rivera's in the other room with his attorney David Collins, and information is going back and forth. No deal was struck that day, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Let's fast forward now about a month and a half, to September 30th of 2016.

MR. DECOSTE: Okay, you were present at the Jefferson County Jail again, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Again with Ms. Cappleman?

MR. DECOSTE: Luis Rivera on that day finally names Katherine, right?

MR. DECOSTE: The next day Katherine Magbanua was arrested.

MR. DECOSTE: And Luis Rivera gets his deal, right?

MR. DECOSTE: You know that Luis Rivera takes a plea a couple days after that, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Let's talk about the investigation of the gun a little bit more now.

MR. DECOSTE: When you — you, Sparkman, and Balboni were out there at the river. You find a gun, right?

MR. DECOSTE: But it doesn't match up to the projectiles that were found in this case, does it?

MR. DECOSTE: And you knew that right off the bat, because you know guns.

MR. DECOSTE: But you didn't just say, leave it there, we're out of here.

MR. DECOSTE: You needed to do due diligence and objective investigation on that firearm, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Because it could be related somehow.

MR. DECOSTE: Right?

MR. DECOSTE: You took a series of photographs of this gun in the mud?

MR. DECOSTE: About 15 of them?

MR. DECOSTE: Now again, you had Investigator Sparkman and analyst Balboni there with you, right?

MR. DECOSTE: You also had a representative from the Madison County Sheriff's Office with you.

MR. DECOSTE: You had Madison County Sheriff's Office take possession of the firearm.

MR. DECOSTE: Impounded?

MR. DECOSTE: And on that paperwork of signing it over to you, it was in relation to this case, not some other case.

MR. DECOSTE: You then take the gun and you bring it over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

MR. DECOSTE: Do you not remember?

MR. DECOSTE: We're taking a look at your deposition — help?

MR. DECOSTE: Page 45, lines 19 through 21.

MR. DECOSTE: You submitted the gun over to FDLE?

MR. DECOSTE: Let me ask you a different question. Were you present — because you were removed from the rule of sequestration — were you present in the courtroom when Elizabeth Richey testified?

MR. DECOSTE: Are you aware of her testimony about the testing on that?

MR. DECOSTE: About the testing of that gun?

MR. DECOSTE: So the whole point that we're getting at here is there's a gun that you don't believe is tied to the murder in any way, but you still objectively investigated it. You'd agree with that, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Let's talk about your procedure specifically with this case. You're working with the Tallahassee Police Department and also the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

MR. DECOSTE: A piece of information comes in that somebody wants to talk. You let the FBI, the Tallahassee Police Department know — hey, there's somebody that wants to talk, there's somebody that has information. Right?

MR. DECOSTE: In December of 2016, now this would be after Luis Rivera has pled, you and your office receive a letter from Jennifer Moseley. You remember that?

MR. DECOSTE: Ms. Moseley says that she has new information or confirmation of facts on Luis Rivera. You remember that, right?

MR. DECOSTE: If you don't remember, would it help you to take a look at her letter?

MR. DECOSTE: Now, that letter comes in after Luis Rivera has become a state's witness, right?

MR. DECOSTE: And it talks about having information --

MR. DECOSTE: Investigative steps, Your Honor.

MR. DECOSTE: Did you ever meet with Ms. Moseley?

MR. DECOSTE: You never met with Ms. Moseley. Did you?

MR. DECOSTE: Now, if she were to say something that would impeach Luis Rivera, that would be bad for your theory and prosecution on the case, right? Right?

MR. DECOSTE: Let's go to another person now.

MR. DECOSTE: Juan Marcos Vega.

MR. DECOSTE: You never shared that information with the Tallahassee Police Department, did you?

MR. DECOSTE: Who'd you share it with?

MR. DECOSTE: Never shared with Patrick Sanford?

MR. DECOSTE: So the Leon County State Attorney's Office, in the fall of 2016, right around the time that Luis Rivera is becoming a state's witness, you receive a letter from Imran Hussein, right? That leads you to have a phone call with Imran Hussein, right?

MR. DECOSTE: And Imran Hussein tells you that there's some investigator — After receiving this information, you yourself, alone, drove down to South Florida and met with Juan Marcos Vega, correct?

MR. DECOSTE: Leakout, correct?

MR. DECOSTE: Detective Leakout?

MR. DECOSTE: You went in and you spoke to him?

MR. DECOSTE: You would agree with me that it was, in your words, that it was the wrong approach, the investigator — I'm not asking you for the substance of the communication with Juan Marcos Vega, but you would agree with me — your words — that the way that you questioned him was the wrong approach.

MR. DECOSTE: You recorded that interview, right? This goes into the next topic: the meeting with Luis Rivera on 9/30. You remember that, you were present?

MR. DECOSTE: That wasn't recorded?

MR. DECOSTE: The one that we just spoke about was?

MR. DECOSTE: Moving forward now in time to 2019.

MR. DECOSTE: A woman named Amy Manka — your interview with her, not recorded?

MR. DECOSTE: Brenda Ward, two meetings, July and August of 2019, not recorded, right?

MR. DECOSTE: All right. Recall the journal.

MR. DECOSTE: Two quick things on those names.

MR. DECOSTE: With the meeting with Amy Manka, you went to her. She didn't come to you, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Brenda Ward — she came to you, or you went to her. She didn't come to you.

MR. DECOSTE: Nothing further. Thank you.

MR. ZANGENEH: When Mr. DeCoste was asking you about Juan Marcos Vega. That was one of the defendants on Luis Rivera's Latin King indictment. Is that correct?

MR. ZANGENEH: Were there any other Latin Kings that you interviewed that were on the RICO indictment that Luis Rivera was on?

MR. ZANGENEH: No further questions.

MR. DECOSTE: Investigator Newlin, the only people that knew what happened in that room where Mr. Rivera was, it's him and his attorney, right?

MR. DECOSTE: Nothing further.