How DNA And Cell Phone Evidence In Idaho Murders Complied With 4th Amendment

Is the Fourth Amendment rights of the man being accused of being abused by police infringed upon? Four college students killed Idaho

A lot has been said about the fact that authorities relied in part on Genetic genealogy The arrest warrants were justified by DNA evidence and cell site location information. But the use of such technology, and the way it was likely used in this case, was lawful, as was the use of cell site location information (CSLI) used to track the movement of the suspect’s phone. The Daily Wire will not identify the suspect, in line with a policy that denies mass murderers any undeserved attention.

Police released a redacted portion of the report Affidavit that offers a clearer picture of the facts of the case and the evidence supporting the alleged killer’s arrest.

DNA at the Crime Scene

The four murder victims — all students at the University of Idaho — were found in a house near the Moscow campus. Between 4:00 and 4:25 AM on November 13, 2022, each victim was stabbed to the death. Two victims, a male and a female, were found fatally stabbed in a bedroom on the second floor.

Two victims of females were found in the same bed on the third level. The tan-colored knife sheath of a leather knife was next to the one that had been killed. Forensic examination found DNA from an unknown male on the sheath’s button snap.

Evidence from the Cell Site

A Moscow county sheriff stopped the suspect on August 21 for a traffic offense. This was several months before the murders. He was driving a white Hyundai Elantra 2015 with Pennsylvania plates. The officer asked for his cell number.

When the phone is turned on, every cell phone sends and receives a signal to a local tower. The signal is transferred seamlessly from one tower in the direction that the phone is moving to another as the phone turns on. Every cell phone that uses its services is kept by cell phone service providers, including all location information (CSLI) for each cell phone. This information is used to provide a “map” You can see exactly where the phone was when it was switched on.

Law enforcement applied for and was granted a search warrant for historical phone records for the alleged murderer’s phone number, The records showed the account had been opened on June 23, 2022, for a subscriber with the name of the suspect, who was listed at an address in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania. A review of the historical CSLI data revealed that, prior to the date of the murders, the phone had pinged cell towers in the area of murder scene on 12 separate occasions — always in the evening or early morning hours.

In fact, three months before the murders, on August 21st, the suspect’s phone pinged a cell tower that provided coverage to the King Road residence for over an hour, from 10:34 p.m. to 11:35 p.m.

On the night of the murders, CSLI shows the phone at or near the suspects apartment in Pullman, Washington, at 2:42 a.m. For the next five minutes, it moves south through Pullman, then stops pinging altogether — indicating the phone was then either turned off or put in airplane mode.

Two hours later, at 4.48 a.m. the phone signal returned. It pings towers near Blaine and Moscow, Idaho. The phone then travelled south to Genesee, Idaho, west to Uniontown, Idaho, and then north, arriving back at the suspect’s apartment at 5:30 a.m.

The CSLI footprint of the suspected killer’s phone is consistent with the times, dates, and routes of the white Elantra seen in video surveillance footage recovered from his neighborhood, his university, and the roads and highways between his apartment and the King Road residence.

Did the police violate the murder suspect’s Fourth Amendment rights by obtaining his CSLI information? Not at all.

In Carpenter v. United States (2018), the United States Supreme Court raised standards for police access to SCLI. The Stored Communications Act (SCA) was the previous law that allowed the government to request a court order for cell phone records. These requests didn’t have to be made in compliance with the Stored Communications Act (SCA). “probable cause” Because the information was in the hands of third parties, a standard is required to obtain the search warrant. Accordingly, the cell phone user had no right to privacy over his CSLI.

Carpenter reacted to this practice by requiring that police seek a warrant for any CSLI if it is more than seven-days of data. The Idaho police were totally compliant. They sought a warrant to search for two days of CSLI data that was centered around the time the murders occurred. After reviewing these records, they applied for a search warrant for all CSLI data from June to December.

That data paints a damning map of the whereabouts of the suspect’s phone in the months leading up to the murders, and on the night of the crimes. Prosecutors

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