Opinion ID: 223154
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Detective Starkey’s Testimony

Text: The government next called Gerard Starkey, who worked as a detective for the City of Doral Police Department and as an FBI Task Force officer on the violent crime task force. After Wainwright waived his Miranda rights, Wainwright told Detective Starkey that he and Smith were going to a paint job in the Hollybrook area of Pembroke Pines. Wainwright and Smith met that morning at Richitelli’s house, initially planning to get clothes from Smith’s ex-girlfriend’s house. While they were on their way to Smith’s ex-girlfriend’s, they received a phone call about a paint job in the Hollybrook area. Wainwright told Detective Starkey that “they were going to meet at a gas station prior to going to Hollybrook.” Wainwright expressed surprise at the presence of the gun in the vehicle he was driving, and stated that it must belong to Richitelli or Richitelli’s girlfriend. Wainwright expressed “disbelief” when 17 Starkey told him that Smith had confessed that Smith, Wainwright, and Richitelli planned to commit armed robbery of the money courier. Denying involvement, Wainwright indicated that Smith and Richitelli might have been planning the robbery themselves. During his interviews of the suspects, Detective Starkey obtained their cell phone numbers so that he could obtain their call records. The government introduced Richitelli and Wainwright’s cell phone records for the relevant time period. Starkey testified that Richitelli called Wainwright twelve times, and Smith once, between 8:57 and 9:35 a.m. on August 25, 2009. The government also introduced downloaded information from Richitelli and Wainwright’s cell phones, which revealed twenty-six actual and attempted contacts between the two, as well as with Smith, from 6:14 to 9:29 a.m. on August 25, 2009. There were nineteen actual and attempted calls between Wainwright, Smith, and Richitelli from 5:31 to 10:36 a.m. on August 21, 2009 (the day Smith testified the trio conducted surveillance on the courier).4