Posted on 11/24/2012 7:14:10 AM PST by Uncle Chip
Despite all the investigation, public outrage and scrutiny over the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, at least one major piece of evidence has not yet been thoroughly analyzed: his cellphone.
Police found it at the scene the night Trayvon was shot, its battery dead. Authorities tried but failed to download data from the phone, then asked his father, Tracy Martin, for the security code so they could unlock it. They didn't get the code and turned the phone over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
A crime-lab specialist there had only limited success accessing the messages, photos and other information on the phone, according to attorneys for defendant George Zimmerman.
Without the security code, FDLE analyst Stephen Brenton told attorneys, he could not unlock the phone and download information from its primary data-storage site: the chip built into the phone, said defense attorney Mark O'Mara.
Brenton was able to download files from two removable-storage devices in the phone: its SIM card and SD card, O'Mara said. But the information on its internal chip remains a mystery. It could be revealing, according to O'Mara and co-counsel Don West.
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
Geez. How long does it take to guess a four-digit passcode?
They'll unlock it in a jiffy.
I find it telling that Trayvon’s old man, when asked for the code to unlock the phone, refused to give it to the police.
This from a man that is screaming for “justice” for his son.
Something stinks here...
I was thinking the same thing. Those four wheel padlocks with ten digits around each wheel take less than ten minutes to sequence to the right combo and it’s mechanical.
Have the contacted the phone manufacturer or do they really not want the info?
If you’d asked me for the password to my kids’ phones, I would have had no way of knowing what they were.
have they tried ebonics?
I wonder what model phone this was. Not an iPhone if it had an SD card, but some models lock users out for a period of time (the iPhone does) after a certain number of unsuccessful attempts.
That being said, there are many companies that specialize in this kind of stuff, and being a high profile case, I’d like to think (though maybe wrongly) that they’ve exhausted their options.
The phone is registered to Trayvon's father. According to police records, on March 1, an analyst with the Seminole County Sheriff's Office told Sanford police he needed the security code to unlock the data on the phone.
Sanford police Detective Doris Singleton contacted the carrier, T-Mobile, asking for the code. The company told her they could get to the information if they had the PIN to the account. On March 5, Sanford police Sgt. Joe Santiago asked Tracy Martin for the PIN, according to a police report. Tracy Martin said he'd check with his attorney.
Martin never got back with police. At a March 8 news conference in Orlando, Tracy Martin told reporters he would not help police download information from the phone.
When questioned last month about Tracy Martin's decision to withhold the phone's PIN from authorities, family attorney Benjamin Crump said, "I don't know anything about that. We're going to do anything prosecutors say we should."
Somebody is lying and obstructing justice and the OS just identified who.
Nor do they care. They are only interested in lynching Zimmerman.
They know. It’s a game the prosecutors are playing to keep the defense from getting the evidence. They’re just trying to get a plea.
Me thinks that there were things in the phone’s memory that aren’t supporting the party line on the incident.
Don’t you think if everything on the phone supported the party line we would have heard about it, loudly and repeatedly, since the end of March. Who knows, it might even have become a campaign sound bite.
A memory chip is a memory chip. I don’t see why they can’t just remove the chip to see what’s on it, unless there is some kind of encryption built-in.
I suspect they do not want to find out what is on that phone. Remember, Zimmerman MUST be convicted and sent to prison where he can be killed by an African-american inmate seeking “justice”.
All companies have an override code for ALL cellphones. All the police need is a warrant.
——I find it telling that Trayvon’s old man, when asked for the code to unlock the phone, refused to give it to the police.——
He probably didn’t know it...
I would be in the same position... As about 99 % of all parents...
The guy is still a POS....because he could give T mobile permission to release it to the police....
I’m sure he doesn’t know what the passcode is. But the phone is in his name and with his permission, the phone manufacturer can break the passcode. He will not allow it.
I don’t believe for a minute law enforcement people couldn’t retrieve
Information from a cell phone. They must think all people are truly stupid.
Passwords are useful if you tend to put the phone in your back pocket. They keep you from accidentally dialing someone by sitting down.
However, I made my daughters remove the password on their phones. I told them I’d never violate their privacy, but if, God forbid, they were in an accident, or unconscious, police or a friend could get to the contact list quickly to make a call. They seemed quite satisfied with that explanation.
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