I said a few months ago we would return to the issue(s) surrounding the Trayvon Martin phone mysteries.   Given the retrospect of Jack Cashill’s latest book and construction – Perhaps this is a good time to do so.

During the George Zimmerman trial, there was a “proffer hearing” for evidentiary issues about the content of Trayvon Martin’s telephone.   Most, if not all, of the substantive issues were never discussed by the media.   Instead they clouded their reporting by focusing on Judge Debra Nelson walking out of the courtroom at 10:30pm;  but the substance of the Richard Conner testimony did not evaporate with her running away from it.
In addition to discovering that Trayvon Martin’s father, Tracy, was texting him about guns and ownership, there were issues about the deleted phone content itself.   These deletions were never addressed, and the issues behind them could shake the foundation of the prosecution.
if you will watch the video, and watch e.x.a.c.t.l.y. what Conner says, with specificity, you will note he is actually confirming – and stating – without actually confirming and stating, the phone records were deleted by hardware function.

This is important.   VERY IMPORTANT (for all the reasons outlined above and more, much, much more)
The discussion about *exactly when* the phone deletions occurred was aimed at “authentication issues”, they were not aimed at the back story for when, by who, and why.

Watch it closely, with the understanding that Conner knows he can prove when they were deleted.
Prove in the context of before or after death because of where the deleted files fall in the historical stack of deleted items.   He cannot prove, (because such a function does not exist) the time and date of the deletions.
He can however prove when they occurred in relationship to the totality of data activity on the phone.
Again.  This is important.   Obviously you can see what formative value this would have for the defense team.    They have the evidence they need to prove how the scheme applied, even though they do not have the proof of the actual date/time of the application.

When was the phone scrubbed?

If you listen closely to the Richard Conner testimony you realize what he has found.
The phone deletions were made around all of the attributes which would have affected the considerations in this case about character and reputation. Except for the porn pictures.
The reason those Porn Pics were not found was because of how they were hidden in the phone – in a separate sub file.   The person deleting from the phone would not have seen the naked girl pictures as “images”;  and would have needed a software application to understand the “bin” file which was password protected also.
Mr. Conner is outlining a very specific educated thesis that the phone was scrubbed of damning evidence after death. Meaning somehow a person intentionally removed, “deleted”, the data.
Obviously, Mantai objects when Conner is going there with his explanations – but the implication is crystal clear:
If the state of Florida retained custody of that phone – then someone from FDLE, or in association with the chain of evidence, deleted the data.
THAT DELETED data was the data missing in the State’s discovery to the defense until June 4th. And even after that time, the essential summary of data, which was included in a written report, was devoid of mention to this specific data file of deleted evidence.
What does this mean?
It lends to only one Occam’s Razor explanation: The STATE prosecutorial team, or someone prior to their takeover, intentionally deleted, the data.   Then, after the software program was used, the State delivered a partial file with the non-deleted data; then at the last minute before trial delivered the full data set, but omitted the deleted data from the written report summarizing the entire “bin” file.
Essentially, the State hid the evidence – and Don West has the specific understanding of how and who has falsely presented the manipulated information.
They also falsely testified, pre-trial, to the data delivery and the process under which it was done. That’s what the Whistle Blower, Ben Kruidbos, was trying to tell them – but was handcuffed in court explanation by the fact the Defense had yet to receive the manipulated data in the form the Whistle blower was describing it.
The written “content” reports from the state did not arrive until June 6th 2013.

So we have TWO distinct larger issues:

#1.   Who deleted the data from the phone itself?  Also, when did they do it?

#2.   Why did the State hide the deleted data from the defense team after they recovered it through the use of extraction software?    Also, who made that decision?

To the first set of questions –  JAS Previously shared:  Sundance, the exact date of the deletions on the phone might not be possible to ascertain but the general time frame, i.e. before or after TM’s death is.

Think of the data storage in the phone as a hard drive. Hard drive storage is managed as a database and it has two parts. The first is the data space, and it is made up of sectors (think the rectangles on a spreadsheet). Most use standard length sectors of 1KB length. the data lives in these sectors.

The second part is the database index. This file contains the file names, dates and the sector addresses used for every specific file. So, you want to look for a picture named mine.jpg. The picture viewer software calls for the file and the operating system makes low level hardware calls for it. The hardware calls query the index and figure out that mine.jpg is there in sectors 5,8,11,1000, 1001,1002, etc. and retrieves those sectors for the picture software – which displays it. A picture takes many many sectors because the sectors are small – 1kb.

Notice that the sector numbers are not contiguous although they could be and this is the important part.

When data is deleted it is not erased from the drive. Instead, the file is marked as deleted in the index (sector numbers are kept in in the deleted record} and the sectors are made available for reuse in the database index. The driving software (a picture viewer for example) might keep records of these deleted sectors or not. Most don’t. To get to them you need software that examines the hard drive’s database index, called data recovery software. Or, as was mentioned before the files were NOT deleted because they were not recognizable to the deleters. This makes a lot more sense.

Ok then, say that now as the phone user you save a new picture. At this point the sectors in the file area that were marked as deleted get reused based on a predefined algorithm (say for example last out first in, whatever)  and a new database index entry is created using those sectors.

That’s how it works. So, to find out a general time frame when things were deleted is pretty easy. If you pulled a file marked as deleted in the index and it makes no sense, it was deleted and some (not all)  of the sectors were overwritten by another picture. That would not be possible after TM’s death because in theory no one would be saving new pictures on the phone after the event and jumbling the data. In other words, the deleted picture in the hard drive and the database index would still be in synch.

Note: Analysts know this. If they really wanted to scrub the phone they would overwrite the deleted sectors with “Nulls”. and no one wold be the wiser. 

Kikkoman adds further consideration:  I am pretty sure the data was deleted on the phone itself, not from the .bin file – there’d be strong evidence for that otherwise, and there would be the HUGE red flag that contents from both phone and bin file wouldn’t match up if anyone happened to compare the two. The phone itself should still be in evidence, after all.

re: guns:   RJ stated on CNN (w/ Piers Morgan I think.. urgh) that she NEVER discussed guns with TM. Yet in the extraction reports there’s a text conversation with W8 (text, not FB, so it doesn’t matter who Diamond is) on 2/18 about a gun W8′s mom bought for her.

https://www.gzdocs.com/documents/0513/discovery_3/extraction_reports/report4.pdf identifies W8 as the recipient while:

https://www.gzdocs.com/documents/0513/discovery_3/extraction_reports/report1.pdf shows the whole conversation with the replies in between (no numbers, but the defense would have access to the unredacted report and phone records. I’m sure they’re the same number.) Those messages were not deleted.

So, if she were to repeat that on the stand, here are the possibilities: a) RJ lied on CNN. Well, I’m sure Piers could forgive her, but that’s between her and CNN.     She really did text with TM about that gun. Mom really bought a gun for her. No win. b) according to her testimony, someone else had her phone at times. WHEN? WHO? HOW OFTEN?   Alas, DW didn’t go there. —>c) RJ really never texted or talked with TM about guns because – you guessed it! – it WASN’T HER PHONE at that time. RJ doesn’t know about that gun in question.   Someone like Don West could easily get to the bottom of that if she were under oath. Take your pick, Ms. Jeantel: another perjury or the truth? d) Someone else was using TM’s phone that day. And/or b). But that’s real retarded, siiirrrr.

It is not a question “if” data was deleted.   That stands as fact.
So the issue becomes by who, and when?
For that consideration you have to apply standard research inquiry.   Who had:  a) Motive, b) Opportunity, and c) Benefit ?
Those with motive are obvious – The Trayvon Martin family and their representatives, and by consequence, those who where manipulated by the Trayvon Martin family and their representatives, The State.
Those who would benefit are the same characters as those who held motive.
So who had Opportunity?    [ Remember, forensically this appears done from the hardware – ie. THE PHONE ITSELF ].
From an earlier Orlando Sentinel report highlighting the March 16th, 2012, meeting in Sanford Mayor Triplett’s office:

[…]  The [911] recordings were released after Trayvon’s family spent two hours with city officials, listening to the calls that documented the 17-year-old’s last moments alive. (link)

We know from trial testimony by Sanford City Manager, Norton Bonaparte, and former Police Chief, Bill Lee, the Martin family and their representatives, were left alone in Mayor Triplett’s office for over an hour AFTER they initially listened to the 911 call audio.
The family, or someone on their behalf (“we were asked“), asked Mayor Triplett, Manager Bonaparte, and Chief Lee to step out of the room.   This ‘alone time’ was described by Chief Lee at trial to be around :45 minutes to an hour.
Following the total of 2 hours (one hour with city officials present, and one hour alone) the Martin Family attorneys went on camera.  THIS IS MUST WATCH:

If the integrity of the telephone custody in evidence (the evidence logs) was maintained then ONLY the STATE had the opportunity to delete data.   PERIOD.
This puts the entire focus on Angela Corey.
However, if, as State Prosecutor Bernie De La Rionda said in court to Mr. Norton Bonaparte, “it was the right thing to do” -to let the family hear the tapes together- if this was the mindset of the local city officials at the time;   Then what are the possibilities for the phone itself?
Was it also the “right thing to do” to allow the Martin Family to hear the voice mails that were remaining on the phone?….    And if so, did that then provide OPPORTUNITY for the Martin Family representatives, during that hour alone, to delete data from the phone itself?
Remember, the Sanford Police Department had asked Tracy Martin for help accessing the phone when they asked for the passcode(s)  –  Again from the Orlando Sentinel:

[…] Martin never got back with police. At a March 8 [2012]  news conference in Orlando, Tracy Martin told reporters he would not help police download information from the phone. (link)

What say you?