Daily Archives: August 23, 2018

Good Evening Everybody! This Marty from Dawg’s Blog. Tonight’s podcast, on 8/22/2018, on the Frank Carson, et al trial. This is week 18, Court Day 64.

Jim Cook finally got done on the stand (WhoooWhoo! It’s finally over!). He did finish late this afternoon. He was on the stand for 10 days, so figuring 8 hours/day x $350 = $2800/day, plus he did work on the evening and weekends. So by the time he’s done billing for this trial, he will probably over the $400,000. Congratulations Mr. Cook! You have found a good market in Stanislaus County. He still has more testimony in the other prelims and trials associated with this case.

The afternoon started around 1:44 pm. The Judge got on the bench, the Jury came up.

Jai Gohel was finishing his cross examination of Jim Cook. Jim Cook’s son has not been there the last 2 days. Apparently, they had another trial and they tried to delay his testimony, but the Judge didn’t allow it and so Chris Cook went to that trial and is handling the duties there. (I’m sure he has CNAQAP down! I’ve never seen Chris Cook testify, so maybe that’s not fair!)

Jai Gohel was doing cross on Jim Cook and he was asking about precise moments when the overlaps changed. The best Jim Cook would say was sometime in 2011-2012, again being very evasive. I personally would have asked how he found out about the overlaps and who he talked to about it. He also said that AT&T did change their overlaps, but doesn’t know when they did. Most of the phones involved in this have AT&T has their carrier. Eula Keys’ and Korey Kauffman’s phones were Cricket. So, he didn’t really know when AT&T changed. Jai Gohel put up slide #34/229. Talking about the overlaps and it is a big issue because of the way Jim Cook did the mapping. He didn’t put the locations of interest, mainly the Frank Carson property, sometimes in the overlap, sometimes outside the overlap. Remember he did the mapping with the protractor, compass and eyeballed the dimensions. They have already shown that some of his mapping (like the cell tower in Big Oak Flat) he was 23 degrees off in his mapping. That could have put Baljit Athwal’s phone in a completely different area, like at Highway 120, instead of the Mariposa area.

So he doesn’t know when the overlap changes were made, he’s made several mistakes on the stand (some more admitted today). He was asked if the overlap on the Frank Carson property 5-10 degrees was instead of 10-15 degrees it would take the Frank Carson property out of the sector of that particular cell site and would make a difference in the mapping and the locations of interest. He said CNAQAP!

He was asked if during the last 10 days of testimony, did he go to lunch with DA and/or the Investigators? He said yes, most days. They had talked with regards to his testimony multiple times. He did say they did some discussion about his testimony. They also have had meetings since he started his testimony to discuss new slides that he put together last weekend. (Distances in towers from the Frank Carson property and some of the GD points brought up by the defense). Remember, he’s calling the vacillation, which means bouncing back and forth between towers or sectors and GD was bouncing between the Standiford sector and Doctor’s Medical Center sector. Also, if she was driving down McHenry to pick up a prescription it would do the same thing. Which is the point Jai Gohel was making with this questioning. He was asked if they discussed the GD for rebuttal of the oscillation and he said, “No Sir”. They did create exhibits #368A and #369 for the DA to use in redirect. He used Google Earth Streets and Trips to do the mapping and some of the tools. Google Earth, from what I was told, you can draw mapping, if you have a location of a cell phone tower and you can draw mapping to scale with the tools on Google Earth. Jim Cook did not use these tools. It doesn’t seem like he wanted exact, precise mapping of those cell sites and points of interest. He was also asked if he double checked the angles of the sectors with the Google Maps. Of course he didn’t. He had to acknowledge again that he was off by 23 degrees on the cell tower in Big Oak Flat. Jai Gohel asked if the DA asked him to check the angles on Google Maps to prove he was correct. He says no, he doesn’t use those tools. Asked if he used any other tools other than eyeballing and a protractor. He said “No Sir”.

Asked how many hours during his testimony has he spent with Law Enforcement? He said he met every day with the DA and Investigators, prior and during his testimony.

They started talking about the mapping that he did when the phones were “dark”. He’s claiming the phones are not on/off, it is just “dark”. Before they were trying to say the phones were “on or off”, now they are trying to say the device is “dark”. Jim Cook testified he didn’t have room on the whole side of the page, but wrote the device was turned off, that he didn’t have room to write “or not connected to the network”, but there was a whole empty column. I guess that is a choice he made.

Jai Gohel asked about 3/29/12 – 4/16/12, was the device ever off or not connecting when Eula Keys’ called Korey Kauffman number? Jim Cook said no, there were none. At no times when Eula Keys’ called the device, was it ever not connecting to the network, or every time Eula Keys’ called the device it was connected to the network.

Jai Gohel asked again if it went through Korey Kauffman number and a connection was made. Jim Cook says he needs more information. There was one question Jai Gohel was asking, he was standing at the overhead, with his finger pointing at the sector of the tower (he was having trouble getting and answer from Jim Cook so he walked to the overhead) and Jim Cook said he cannot answer the question because you didn’t give the tower name, while Jai Gohel was pointing at the tower. Judge Zuniga took him to task this morning on some of this stuff. It doesn’t do much good. Jim Cook is a stubborn man.

Normally Cricket hold their CDR’s (Call Data Records) for 6 months in 2012 and then they are purged. When Jim Cook came on the case in 2014, it was well past the 6 month period and so he couldn’t get Eula Keys”s records. Kirk Bunch made the decision about which records to pull. They have Korey Kauffman and Robin Attenhoffer’s phone. But the last person to see Korey Kauffman alive, her records did not get pulled.

He said they briefed him very deeply. He also reviewed slide #214/229. After the search warrant was done on 7/15/12, was it within the 6 month record preserved period for Cricket and he said he was never provided with information Eula Keys’ to map. They knew there were some calls made in July 2012, which was within the 6 month period and they still did not pull Eula Keys’ records. It looks like none of the maps that Jim Cook prepared, none of them related to the post-search or warrants served. Apparently there wasn’t anything of value for them, so they didn’t have him map anything. There was a mass of phone numbers and they didn’t have him map them all.

He was asked if he testified the Baljit Athwal or Daljit Athwal had contacted Robin Attenhoffer’s device (Robert Woody girlfriend at the time, as Robert Woody didn’t have a phone number). He said there was no contact from 3/30/12 after 6:35pm that and through the next day 3/31/12, between Baljit Athwal, Daljit Athwal and Robin Attenhoffer’s phone. Jai Gohel had no further questions at this time.

Also, Jai Gohel quite a few confrontations with Jim Cook. Many of the “can’t answer questions at this time” or “need more information” it was an obvious attempt not to answer questions. Jai Gohel looked at Jim Cook after one of those times and asked “Is this a strategy you use?” The DA went ballistic and Judge kind of did too. Jai Gohel is done. They are fairly exasperated when they are done cross examining Jim Cook as they have to ask questions 10 different ways to get him to answer.

Marlissa Ferreira started re-re-re-re-re-direct and they looked at the exhibit he had drawn up (C-N) it is a CDR about 8-10 pages and she asked Jim Cook about Eula Keys’ and Korey Kauffman devices. There was also a second phone number from Lori Freitas, that also called and connected during that period, but they didn’t say the exact date, it was probably closer to 4/6 or 4/7 or 4/8/12. Kevin Pickett also called when the device was on, he made several calls again, like he had finally made contact with his cell phone and he kept calling. It was late at night. There was also a Christina Van Dyk that connected, Marlissa Ferreira said every time, but I don’t believe that’s true. Somebody had that phone and turning it on/off or it was somewhere in a spot where connection was tough. But everytime Eula Keys’ called it connected, she’s the only one it really did that with.

They talked about the 2011 case, the Herman Dunkirkin case and he discussed the 5-10 degree overlap, how the 2 sectors came together and it creates a “null area”. So he was answering questions on the “null area”. He was also reading the transcript of that testimony. Marlissa Ferreira put up slide #131/229 of 4/8/2011 where he viewed Daljit Athwal records. A call at 4:40pm where he was in the vicinity of Pop ‘n Cork. 4:14pm there was a dispute about the times of the call, it was a 40 sec call, but he was in the same sector as Pop ‘n Cork. He also said he reviewed Frank Carson records prior to the preliminary hearing, reviewed Christine Deflippo’s records and Frank Carson’s records 3-4 month later after he was hired to start the work. Asked if he reviewed cell tower information? Jim Cook: Yes. Asked if Christine Defilippo was vacillating? Jim Cook: he saw Frank Carson and CD records and made a determination they were vacillating. He based his opinion on the CDR’s provided by the companies. He said the 400+ times it vacillated in the 110 – 230 sector on the SE Turlock Cell site (110 is the SE sector and 230 is the SW sector).

He was looking at the new exhibit he developed this weekend. She asked him about the businesses on Lander Ave (This caught my attention and was interesting). When Jai Gohel asked about the Pizza Hut and Savemart on Lander Jim Cook responses were “I don’t know the business’s down there”. He says he know Turlock and the streets, but not the business. But when he was answering the DA’s questions he was familiar with Dollar General and the Pizza Place, he said Yes, that is where they are. He said there were no mapping done on the businesses. I was confused about what he was saying. The cell phone has a range 4-6 miles and work off a line-of-sight and the SE Turlock is a little over 4 miles away from the Frank Carson property, so it could cover the Grocery Store, down and Linwood and Lander Ave. There were other towers that were closer that it didn’t connect to, like CSU Stanislaus. So I didn’t understand quite all of this as I haven’t looked it up personally. Jim Cook also said he went to the Frank Carson property and visited all the locations of interest and took pictures and he was asked if the bus might cause obstructions on the SE Turlock Tower and he said that was a possible obstruction. Also the text and data calls require less signal strength and quality, the phone calls need the best signal. In regard to seizure time of calls they can be anytime from 0-35 sec. (Seizure time: you get the number and hit call, seizure time is the time between you hit the call button and you connect with the person. The seizure time is in addition to the total time of call, so you have to add seizure time to get the total time of the call. Jim Cook did not add the seizure times) He was asked if adding in the seizure times would change his opinions on any of this? Jim Cook says No Ma’am.

The data refreshes are not mapped. If you don’t use your phone for 5 hours, every hour the network automatically tries to refresh your phone to make sure you are connected. Automatic refresh is what he’s referring to. If you don’t use your phone and drive from Modesto to Turlock, your automatic refresh would be on the Tower you were last connected to. So data refreshes are not reliable for mapping. Jim Cook doesn’t map them unless they are initiated by the user. He chose not to use these refreshes to determine if the phone is dark. He can’t say it’s off because there are network refreshes. Marlissa Ferreira asked if any of the defense questions changes his opinion of the sectors at the SE Turlock Tower. Jim Cook says the most significant fact he relied on were the CDR’s and his personal observation of the containers, residences, buildings, etc.

2:50 pm Marlissa Ferreira had no further questions. We took a break.

Percy Martinez asked Jim Cook if he was hired to consult and to give expert testimony and what he’s paid so far? He’s been paid $354,900, through March of 2018. He has billed another 118.75 hours @ $350/hour, plus now his testimony during the trial, which is 10 days. (Jim Cook gets $200 and $150 goes to his son, Chris Cook), plus working some evenings/weekends. He said for the 118 hours it is about $22,000, so that puts him up to $376,000 + court time, which should put him over $400,000. Percy Martinez asked if the money would impact his opinion. Jim Cook says No.

They talked about his use of CDR’s and personal observations in this case. He doesn’t recall the day he went to 838th Ninth Street. He was asked when he came on the case. Jim Cook said June 2014 or thereabouts. Percy Martinez asked, Do you think you went to the property prior to June of 2014? Jim Cook says CNAQAP! He doesn’t want to answer this question. He just said it was June 2014 or later that he made the observations. He said there were containers, double decker bus, other items that are potential obstructions on the Frank Carson property. He didn’t go on the property, he just peeked through the fence. Percy Martinez asked about Marlissa Ferreira asking about the bus and obstructions. Jim Cook says that depends on where they are standing, where the tower is, where the device is. Percy Martinez showed him 368A (the exhibit he made last weekend) it was an unknown photo date of the Google Earth satellite view that was used. Percy Martinez asked if it says the date of the photo? Jim Cook says no, it only has a copyright on the bottom. He doesn’t know if the bus or containers were there or in the same place in 2012. His observations were not made in 2012. (he says sarcastically). He was asked about the 55 events for the Frank Carson device that were vacillating on the 110/230 sector of SE Turlock Site. There were 28 occasions on the 110 sector, which is the SE sector, in 4 years. Averages to 7 occasions a year.

Asked about the Lori Freitas numbers. Jim Cook says there were 11 events, but no connections from 3/31/12 – 4/6/12. They went through the dates individually. There were no connections between 3/31/12-4/6/12. The first connection was on 4/7/12 @ 11:30 pm. Jim Cook: CNAQAP, even though he had the CDR right in front of him. Then he was asked about another phone number, which I believe was Kevin Pickett’s number and that first contact was made on 4/7/12 @ 0045 hours. The other call was Ms. Van Dyk connected on 4/11/12 @ 11:18pm. He was asked if the device refreshes why doesn’t he use it in his mapping? Jim Cook: CNAQAP. Marlissa Ferreira just asked him these questions, but he doesn’t want to answer. He was asked if the phone is on when it is refreshed. Jim Cook says yes. Percy Martinez had no further questions.

Hans Hjertonsson was brief. Asked about a refresh when there had been a manipulation on the device. Jim Cook did map some of the automatic refreshes when there was a manipulation on the phone. It was an unknown specific person Jim Cook talked to at AT&T. He didn’t remember who or when he talked to about some of this information about the overlaps. Hans Hjertonsson asked if Jim Cook’s opinions are from the scientific community or own opinions. Jim Cook: says they are not from the scientific community. Marlissa Ferreira objected, but Jim Cook had already answered. Hans Hjertonsson was done.

The jury wanted to be done. They are leaning forward, looking at the clock, not taking notes.

Jai Gohel asked about some of the questions asked by Marlissa Ferreira about the Eula Keys’ phone. He asked from 3/31/12 – 4/6/12 the only device that connected during that time period was Eula Keys’ and the only time she called was when the phone was turned on, it would shut off or go “dark” right after that. The first time any other device other than Eula Keys’ connected on Korey Kauffman phone was after that. He asked when he went to Frank Carson property to observe, did he go onto the property? Jim Cook: No. The DA asked about the bus and a possible obstruction. Jim Cook: would have to know where the device was to understand the obstruction, but he has no way to know. So he looked through the privacy slats in the fence to determine possible obstructions and he can’t even see the entire property. He was asked if his opinions were based on the CDR’s or the $400,000? (They are really hammering the $400,000) Jai Gohel had no further questions.

Judge Zuniga asked Marlissa Ferreira if she had any redirect. She said No. Percy Martinez said No. Hans Hjertonsson said No. Jai Gohel said No. You could really hear a gasp of relief from the Jury Box. I’m not exaggerating. It is, to tell you the truth, kind of sad, but they were relieved to get him off the stand.

Jim Cook was done. He was Cooked!

The next witnesses were Mr. and Mrs. Monekea. They had the 402 hearing recently. Korey Kauffman was over there every day. Korey Kauffman was living on the Frank Carson property and working on the Frank Carson property, making money. They were telling all kinds of strange stories. The DA said Sandra Stubblefield (relative of the Picketts), will testify tomorrow and will be brief. Then the Monekea’s. They went over their rap sheets. Mrs. Monakea had a few arrests in 2010 and 2011. One was dismissed for failure for speedy prosecution. The other one she pled to a lesser charge. The Judge only lets certain things brought up on these rap sheets. The defense isn’t allowed to see it. Marlissa Ferreira isn’t supposed to see it either. Only crimes of moral turpitude can be revealed to the attorneys.

Mike Monekea in 1987 had drug case out of San Francisco, 1991 possession of cocaine, 2009 sales, 2011 sales and possession. 2011 is really the only impeachable prior for sales. Remember, Monekea admitted he was a drug dealer at the 402 hearing and Korey Kauffman was one of his best customers.

Percy Martinez addressed the court and doesn’t recall if they received reports on the incidents in 2011. Did he try to work off some of the cases? Why did he get a deal? Or is it a normal case? Is he allowed to ask about if the cases were worked off? Judge Zuniga says he should talk to her before he goes into it.

So, Sandra Stubblefield in the morning and the Monekea’s after her. Gary Crosby should be coming in soon. Sheree Hendricks (the deputy that recovered the body and screwed it up) soon also.