DAY 5: Karen Read Retrial

2:27 timestamp, John's phone battery temp decline, ARCCA voir dire, and more.

Y’all…

Just go ahead and put your helmet on because this recap is a whirlwind of important information today.

The first half of the day we heard from Cellebrite Expert, Ian Whiffin, regarding ALL kinds of interesting cellular data, and then after lunch a voir dire for the ARCCA experts was held.

Let’s get started.

TESTIMONY

IAN WHIFFIN (Cellebrite Expert) -

• Cellebrite is a software company used for digital forensic purposes to extract cell phone data. The company mostly focuses on phone and iPad extractions.

• A quick glimpse at his job title and career background…

• Ian Whiffin analyzed two different phone extraction reports for this case:

  • Jen McCabe (witness)

  • John O’Keefe (victim)

---

Jen McCabe’s Phone:

• Whiffin explains how data reports extracted from digital devices are a great tool, but it’s up to the examiner to interpret it properly by going beyond just the initial report. Misinterpretation causes faulty conclusions.

• Prosecutor Brennan leads into the 2:27 am timestamp issue that has been the center of this case for several years. Ian Whiffin was informed that the investigators in this case had reached out to Cellebrite with a question regarding the data report. A 2:27 timestamp showed a search “hos long to die in cold”, however it wasn’t presenting in the report like other searches.

• Whiffin recalls that the defense team’s expert, Richard Green, also reached out to Cellebrite with the same question. Whiffin investigated and analyzed the issue, then relayed the answer via his public blog. He responded back to the investigators.

• He attempted reaching out to Richard Green to answer his question, however Green never called him back.

• Whiffin uses a power point presentation to explain the 2:27 timestamp confusion for the jury to understand with clear visuals.

• 2:27 is a last tab open artifact. The tab was reused after 6am to google “Hos long to die in cold”. It’s just that simple. Whiffin shows how this occurs.

• Whiffin also explains the misinterpretation over the report stating “deleted” with particular artifacts. In regard to Jen’s searches in question, there are no missing records in the history database, which indicates that no searches were manually deleted by the user. There would be a record of that.

JOHN O’KEEFE’S PHONE:

• Whiffin shows a visual map of John’s phone location in motion from when they were headed to the 34 Fairview property. The location data shows times of each location mark. The accuracy is within 5 meters when reception is good on the phone, which for the most part was in that ideal range.

• John’s iPhone Apple Health data infers 3 flights during the time of 12:21 and 12:24. Location data shows John was still in Karen’s vehicle driving to the house.

• Flights can actually be inferred when driving while holding a phone due to the hand movements, elevation, and suspension of vehicle. Whiffin shows the rising elevation on the map where the vehicle was in those moments.

  “Based on the location data, the health data, and the research that I did and the testing, I believe it is more likely the device was in a vehicle traveling on a road going up an incline than the location data being incorrect and a person walking up physical stairs.” - Whiffin

• John’s phone arrives outside of the Fairview home at 12:24:38 am as it comes to the first complete stop near the flag pole, past the driveway. All other timestamps prior are associated with a general speed of the vehicle.

• “High frequency” location data is represented as a circle range. Anywhere within the circle is a possible spot of that phone. The smaller the circle, the more exact the location is. The larger the circle, the broader the range of location. Larger circles occur when reception is not as strong.

• John’s phone location pings remain on the side lawn area/street in the vicinity of where his body is eventually found hours later. The only time the location circle reaches the Albert house is when the location circle broadens momentarily when reception drops. The circle grows smaller, and more specific again showing John on side lawn area/street.

  (Below is a screenshot of the photo closer up so you can see the red dots mentioned by Whiffin in the clip above.)

  

• 12:32:16 am John’s Apple Health data officially stops registering steps/activity.

• 6:04 am John’s phone registers movement again. This is the timeframe medics were on scene.

• Whiffin then shows a diagram of the victim’s phone battery temperature data. The temperature begins decreasing from the timeframe he arrives to the property, thus lending to the idea that he never went into the home because he was lying in the cold temps. This matches up with his location data as well. (Sorry for the blurry photo, my computer was not able to screeshot the trial visuals with clarity for some reason).

• Whiffin also testifies to “pocket” state data. This is when the phone registers that it is in a pocket, or has something covering the front screen. In this case, it would be John lying on his phone for 6 hours. His phone shows the pocket state for the entire length of time.

• A phone has 3 internal clocks, which serve different purposes. The clock that we see on our phone is the most accurate time.

• Locked screen data was also testified to. John’s phone would show that he periodically unlocked his phone to use the messenger app. 12:32 am would be the last time he ever used that feature.

CROSS EXAMINATION:

• Defense Attorney Alessi asked Whiffin if two different people, Jen McCabe and Brian Higgins, had texted John asking if he was coming (the house). Whiffin confirms, yes.

(Cross ended early for lunch, and will resume tomorrow)

---

ARCCA VOIR DIRE:

After lunch, there was a fiery voir dire with Prosecutor Brennan questioning the ARCCA expert, Daniel Wolfe about the context of the missing communications with the defense team. The other expert, Andrew Rentschler, was also questioned at the end of the day, but just briefly.

Here’s what we learned…

Daniel Wolfe was asked where the text messages (about 100 of them) are that Defense Attorney Alan Jackson could not provide the court because he said they were ‘deleted’ from his own phone, and Wolfe says he also can not provide them because he switched phone carriers several months ago. He only has access to the last three months of texts on his phone.

Wolfe says he tried to contact his provider and see if he could access them, and couldn’t.

HOWEVER…

Wolfe later admits he deleted all those texts because it’s routine and there was no reason to keep them after trial.

We also learn that Wolfe and the Defense Attorney communicated through the Signal app because it’s Alan Jackson’s preferred way of chatting.

Wolfe, the accident reconstruction expert, who boasts about “science” and data, says he didn’t know the Signal app is an encrypted communication provider.

M’kay.

Next…

We heard Daniel Wolfe defend the outline he provided the defense as just him trying to help the jury out. The context behind these communications is in the audio clips in this post HERE if you need a refresher.

Prosecutor Brennan questioned Wolfe on the date they were retained for the second trial, and when they officially received the CW’s reconstruction expert’s raw data report for them to review. Wolfe says sometime after February 2025, and Prosecutor Brennan states the info was provided to the defense in January.

(Defense is seeking more testing, and prosecution argued it was too late in the game now for new testing as the trial is already underway. Claims this would be trial-by-ambush. Judge will decide this soon)

Last highlight worth mentioning…

Wolfe states that the DOJ was watching the first trial closely, and had sent the ARCCA experts some of the prosecution’s witness testimony during the trial.

(I can’t figure out why the DOJ was so helpful to the defense while seemingly handicapping Prosecutor Adam Lally last trial. It’s very bizarre to me, but I’m not a lawyer. Maybe my fellow lawyer friends can give some legal insight into what this was all about in the comment section.)

AND… that’s a wrap.

The Judge will likely be hearing from the attorneys tomorrow at some point (I assume afternoon) to make final arguments regarding the ARCCA experts.