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Apple Health App Data Helps Send a Man to Prison for His Wife's Death
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Undisclosed I think. We can but guess. Since iCloud backup is encrypted with a key that Apple holds my guess is in that alley but who knows if our clever murderer even had a passcode.
I just finished watching The Staircase on Netflix - this could have come in handy for a solid verdict.
Probably just picked up his iPhone here and there around the time he killed his wife. He obviously didn't slip it in his pocket beforehand, hence only 18 steps were recorded.
Good thing he didn't commit the crime on a treadmill - my AW is horrific at accuracy on a treadmill
Good for you - now just handle the murder weapon better than the guy in this article and you should be set!
Just use the Bart Simpson excuse: "[While swinging bottle] If you get hit, it is your own fault"
Fingerprints on the bottle n I’m sure other evidence (hair follicles blood or impressions of blunt force trauma on Kat’s head matching size of bottle that impacted) sealed his fate. The steps in iOS health showed lying under oath n willingness to conceal using his training as crime scene investigator. Boom!
The timeline of the article does not add up. It says the woman stopped moving at 10:54pm but the man took steps at 11:03 to 11:10pm, after she stopped moving.
With the evidence provided wouldn't the following narrative make sense?
With the evidence provided wouldn't the following narrative make sense?
- Husband is sleeping.
- At approximately 10:54pm wife is murdered by another party.
- At 11:03pm husband decides to check on noise coming from another part of the house.
- Husbands find bottle on the floor and picks it up to examine.
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The problem I have is maybe the whole stepping thin is likely more accurate but when it comes to a fairly long conviction i am not sure how relying on such things is great. My sleep app literally say I sleep 0-3hrs every night when I generally get 2-4 or 5 hrs. ?? Had one 5 day period where it said I got similar or less sleep than my brother in hell week. ?? That isn’t accurate enough not even close. They don’t even use polygraphs for similar reasons. Likely true but not accurate enough for severe time. ???
Well I think that it was really his fingerprints on the murder weapon. This was just used to disprove his account of what happened.
Obviously no one is talking about how that data is required. It may even be the husband himself provided the password for the phone.
The biggest problem is "confirmation bias". If someone in law enforcement decides you are a suspect, virtually ANYTHING they learn about you will be viewed through the lens of how does this support our conclusion that you are guilty.
Suppose the estimated time of death was between 2:00 - 3:00 am and your Apple Watch says you got out of bed at 3:18. Is it more likely 1) you will be eliminated as a suspect or 2) the estimated time of death will be changed to 2:00 - 3:30.
You are sadly correct. Detectives are trained to force the data to fit their hypothesis and to accept that there will always be loose ends that don't make sense.
Ignore or hide what does not make sense and force everything else into your hypothesis.
Yeah, that's the part that doesn't make sense to me. The steps were taken after she was reported not moving. 18 steps is not a lot of steps at all. I'm not saying he didn't do it, but the steps doesn't seem too conclusive to me. If it's their home, wouldn't their fingerprints be on literally everything? Also, wouldn't he be freaking out in that situation? I can't even sit still when I get anxious, either I pace or my leg bounces up and down. There has to be more to this story that the source isn't reporting on.
Yeah, on it's own, this evidence couldn't stand. Thankfully there were fingerprints. Otherwise, I don't think you could convict on this solely. These tools are generally accurate but not microscopically specific
Thankfully there are fingerprints? Did this happen in the man's house? I imagine his fingerprints would be everywhere.
Indeed… he could have gotten up to go to the bathroom, stumbled into the bathroom and gotten back in bed.. there are many cases of people getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom while the person in the bed with them was already dead (natural causes mostly) and yes, anything in the house should be assumed to have one or both of the occupants fingerprints.. and an actual killer could have/should have WORN a glove.. you would still find SOME of the house occupants prints.. as they say, if the glove doesn’t FIT, you must acquit!. Oh, too much? Still, can’t really believe he could get convicted by this alone, must be something else.
People, calm down. No one is hinging your guilt or innocence solely on data mined from your devices. In this case, there was significant corroborating evidence. The accused's finger prints were found on the murder weapon; the couple was engaged an an ongoing dispute over her career (motive); and there was undoubtedly forensic evidence establishing that the victim perished from blunt force trauma to the head, which kind could not be sustained by a mere fall. The data was not used to establish guilt; merely to refute the specifics of the defendant's alibi. It's not even enough that the data existed at all — he could have simply said that he had gotten up to go to the bathroom. It was the specific timing, coupled the fact that he had claimed to have been sleeping in bed the entire night, when very clearly he was not. Point is, without the corroborating evidence, the data on its own would certainly never have been enough to convict.
Quite frankly, I'm more concerned that a guy who violently murdered his wife in cold blood got only 16 years, with time served. And you have the defense attorney claiming he should have gotten off with probation. With good behavior and time served, odds are he's out in seven. If he were a man of color, he'd be staring down 25 without parole. Our justice system is shame.
Quite frankly, I'm more concerned that a guy who violently murdered his wife in cold blood got only 16 years, with time served. And you have the defense attorney claiming he should have gotten off with probation. With good behavior and time served, odds are he's out in seven. If he were a man of color, he'd be staring down 25 without parole. Our justice system is shame.
The article doesn’t say anything, but I’d hope that they had a warrant for the health info on the phone. And I’d say that, for privacy’s sake, the standard of evidence required to get a warrant for the health data should be significantly higher than the standard of evidence on most warrants. Then again, I feel the courts, especially the Supreme Court, have been a little lacking when it comes to privacy rights in crime investigation in the smartphone era. It’s hard to say whether the fingerprints on the bottle is sufficient evidence to justify a warrant on the health data, as well, considering that the couple lived together. I’m honestly kinda surprised that it even cleared the grand jury, unless there’s more evidence that the prosecutors had that the article doesn’t mention.
Also 18 steps could just be a trip to the bathroom. But I assume they're using more evidence than just the steps, like the fingerprints for example.