Opinion ID: 4519639
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Cell-phone activity

Text: {¶ 11} Brandi purchased a new cell phone around the time of her move. Her number, however, remained unchanged, and Boaston was able to add spyware to this phone as well. {¶ 12} At trial, the state introduced cell-phone communications it had retrieved for the time period from February 1 through February 15. According to the cell-phone records and Jones’s testimony, Brandi and Jones resumed texting each other shortly after she moved out. Boaston monitored their communications and on numerous occasions contacted Brandi after a particularly suggestive communication. For instance, on one occasion after Brandi had texted Jones, “should have let me kidnap you,” Boaston immediately texted Brandi, “I wish u would stop acting so hateful towards me.” {¶ 13} Boaston’s phone-harassment campaign against Brandi persisted. On February 12, Brandi texted him, “Don’t start being a jerk. i can call my kids    anytime I want.” After this text, Boaston called Brandi eight times in six minutes 4 January Term, 2020 prompting Brandi to text: “Stop calling me. I’m not guna talk to u n hv u calln me a ct.” Despite Brandi’s text, Boaston persisted, calling Brandi’s phone seven more times over the next several minutes and texting, “Why wont u answer ur phone???” {¶ 14} That same day, Boaston went to Brandi’s mother’s home while Brandi was there alone. Brandi called her mother and told her that Boaston was at the house. When Brandi’s mother arrived home, she heard Boaston tell Brandi that “either [she] or [Jones] was gonna pay.” Brandi’s mother told Boaston to leave. {¶ 15} That afternoon, Brandi also texted Jones that Boaston “just started trippn” and “[h]e fkn came over n went through my phone n got pissed I was textn u. Don’t know if he was threatn me or wat.” Previously, Brandi had also told Jones that Boaston had pictures of Jones on a desk at the Amanda Circle condominium. Jones responded to Brandi’s texts expressing his concerns about Boaston, and he and Brandi discussed taking a break from each other. In an attempt to reassure Jones, Brandi explained, “He just mad bc I won’t go back he is not going to do anything to u or me bc he know he guna get in trouble if he does” and, “He don’t want to lose the kids n he will if something happens.” 4. February 13 and early-morning hours of February 14 {¶ 16} The next day, February 13, Brandi spent time alone with Boaston at the Amanda Circle residence before reporting to work for her shift, which started at 6:00 p.m. Earlier in the day, while Brandi slept, Boaston read the text messages on her phone because the spyware program attached to Brandi’s new phone did not work as well as the earlier versions he had used. Additionally, Boaston purchased $20.00 of gas for Brandi’s car at approximately 8:30 a.m. that morning. {¶ 17} Brandi began her shift at Arbors of Waterville at 6:00 p.m. While at work, she and a co-worker made plans for the following night of February 14. Brandi and Jones began texting at approximately 8:30 p.m. By 10:30 p.m., their exchanges turned flirtatious and at roughly 12:15 a.m., the conversation was even 5 SUPREME COURT OF OHIO more sexually charged. At 12:25 a.m., Brandi invited Jones to come out with her and her co-worker the following evening and Jones agreed to meet them. At 1:25 a.m., Brandi texted, “Well wat if I jump on u?” to which Jones replied, “Well wat can I say.” Brandi then asked, “U really want to do something or u playn around.” Jones responded, “I do” and Brandi answered, “Well what should we do.” Boaston texted Brandi six minutes later, but the text content was unrecoverable. {¶ 18} Around 2:00 a.m. on February 14, Boaston drove to the apartment of his friend Matt Gwozdz.1 Gwozdz’s friend Mark Reno was there as well. Boaston admitted to having discussed his relationship problems with them. {¶ 19} According to Reno, Boaston asked Reno for a gun or for someone to “take care of some business.” Reno asked if they needed to “gather up the home boys and go take care of some shit,” and whether someone needed to be “pistolwhip[ped]” or put “in ICU or something.” Reno testified that Boaston responded, “Something like that, but deeper.” At first, Reno thought Boaston was kidding. However, Reno then realized Boaston was serious and surmised that Boaston meant to do harm to some guy “that was fking with his family.” At some point after this discussion, Reno left Gwozdz’s home. After he left, Boaston called Reno at 2:51 a.m. with his prepaid Verizon cell phone.2 The call lasted for over eight minutes, and the record of the call was subsequently deleted from Boaston’s phone. Reno testified that during the call, Boaston asked if they could “meet up tomorrow afternoon sometime and maybe have lunch and talk.” {¶ 20} At 2:59 a.m., Boaston purchased gas for his car. He then drove across town and at 4:06 a.m., withdrew $100 from an ATM. {¶ 21} Brandi left work at approximately 7:00 a.m. Before she left, Brandi told a co-worker that she was going to Boaston’s house to get the kids ready for 1. Matt Gwozdz was deceased at the time of trial. 2. Boaston had a prepaid Verizon cell phone, which he used infrequently, and a Sprint cell phone that he used on a regular basis for most of his texts and voice calls. 6 January Term, 2020 school, then was going back to her mother’s to sleep, and would later drive one of Boaston’s sons and his son’s girlfriend to a restaurant for dinner. 5. February 14, 2014 {¶ 22} Boaston placed a call to Brandi at 6:40 a.m. According to Boaston, the purpose of the call was to confirm she was coming over to the Amanda Circle residence after work. Brandi returned Boaston’s call at 7:02 a.m. On her way to Amanda Circle, Brandi stopped at a McDonald’s near the condominium and bought two sausage breakfast sandwiches at 7:21 a.m. According to Boaston, he and Brandi ate the sandwiches shortly after Brandi arrived at the residence, and then Brandi helped the kids get ready for school. {¶ 23} Boaston told Brandi’s mother that Brandi took a shower after the kids left for school. According to Brandi’s mother, Boaston said that he wanted to engage in intercourse, but when Brandi refused, Boaston said something to the effect of, “[I]f I were Daron you would,” and “asked if she was saving it for Daron.” In an interview with the police, Boaston stated that he and Brandi showered that morning and although he wanted to have sexual relations, Brandi declined because she had an upset stomach. According to Boaston, Brandi lay down, he rubbed her, and Brandi slept. Boaston told the police that when Brandi woke up, she put her dirty clothes back on, gave him a kiss, and left the house between 10:30 and 10:45 a.m. He said Brandi intended to return later that day to file their taxes, give his son a ride to dinner, and then celebrate Valentine’s Day with the family. 6. Cell-phone records and activity {¶ 24} A Toledo detective, an expert in cell-phone-record analysis, testified that cell-phone records show which cell towers and which side of a particular tower a given cell phone is transmitting signals to when the phone makes or receives a call. Further, the records offer an approximate distance between the cell phone and the tower receiving the signal. He explained that with this information, an expert 7 SUPREME COURT OF OHIO can determine the “general vicinity” a given phone was in at a particular time the device was used to make or answer a call. {¶ 25} By tracking the signals sent from Brandi’s and Boaston’s phones to various cell-phone towers, the detective determined that both Boaston’s and Brandi’s cell phones were near the southeast sector of Tower 17 in the vicinity of the Amanda Circle residence until 10:41 a.m. that morning. At 11:15 a.m., Brandi’s phone registered data use to a tower (Tower 929) in Fulton County, which is far west of the Amanda Circle residence. Twelve minutes later, at 11:27 a.m., Brandi’s phone received an incoming call, registering to its final cell tower (Tower 976) from another location in Fulton County—approximately 20 miles from the Amanda Circle residence—where Brandi’s body and her phone and SUV were eventually found the following morning. {¶ 26} During this time period, Boaston’s last registered phone activity occurred at 10:41 a.m. near the Amanda Circle residence. Boaston’s phones did not record any activity from 10:41 a.m. until 11:36 a.m. Testimony established that a cell phone will not transmit signals to cell towers if it is turned off. At 11:36 a.m., Boaston’s Sprint phone received an incoming call from one of his sons. At that time, Boaston’s phone transmitted a signal to Tower 17, but not from the sector closest to Amanda Circle, suggesting he was near—but not at—the residence. Boaston called Brandi’s phone at 12:04 p.m., at which point his phone was back near the Amanda Circle home. {¶ 27} Boaston withdrew $60 from another ATM at 12:41 p.m. Between 12:04 and 1:48 p.m., Boaston called Brandi five times using his Sprint phone and texted her asking, “kids are going to be home soon. Did you still want to file taxes today or what?” 7. February 15, 2014 {¶ 28} Just before 8:00 a.m. on the morning of February 15, hunters discovered Brandi’s SUV, with its engine running, parked in a snow-covered rural 8 January Term, 2020 field in Fulton County roughly 20 to 30 yards from the road. Two key fobs were lying on the passenger seat and one set of boot prints led from the driver’s side of the vehicle to the road. The police were called to the scene. {¶ 29} Brandi’s body was discovered in the rear cargo area of the SUV. Clear, heavy plastic was partially wrapped around her body. Brandi was dressed in a shirt, pants pulled down to the mid-thighs, underwear, and a single sock. Two coats, one inside the other, were stuffed behind her body, along with some boots and shoes. Brandi’s damaged cell phone was on the road nearby, and a McDonald’s receipt, dated February 14 and time-stamped 7:21 a.m., was in the car.