Day 5 - April 28, 2025

Digital-forensics examiner Ian Whiffin described his qualifications and the limits of forensic software before explaining his analysis of data from phones attributed to Jennifer McCabe and John O'Keefe. He testified that the disputed 2:27:40 Safari timestamp reflected a tab coming into focus, while the search records he analyzed placed the searches at 6:23:51 and 6:24:18. He then reviewed location, health, battery-temperature, device-use, and pocket-state data from O'Keefe's phone, ultimately opining that it never moved far from the flagpole area overnight.

Judge Cannone recounted prior findings that the defense had deliberately violated reciprocal-discovery obligations concerning the ARCCA witnesses and stated that a further violation had occurred by opening statements. She ruled that the defense could not mention ARCCA in its opening, then began an evidentiary hearing on the Commonwealth's motion to compel discovery from the ARCCA witnesses or exclude their testimony, beginning with Dr. Wolfe.

Dr. Daniel Wolfe testified about receiving a court order to produce communications, his efforts to locate phone and carrier records, and his communications with defense counsel. Questioning also addressed discussions of ARCCA's usual contract and retention procedures, while Wolfe maintained that he was on the side of his scientific analysis rather than acting as a defense advocate.

Brennan questioned Dr. Wolfe about billing, deleted texts, Signal communications, and his records produced in response to a court order. Wolfe said he deleted texts after the prior trial, estimated about 100 messages with Mr. Jackson, and described four to five brief Signal communications earlier that year. The court marked as Exhibit No. 1 an email Wolfe sent to Mr. Jackson the evening before his prior testimony with an attached direct-examination outline. Wolfe said he prepared the material himself to prepare for testimony, did not discuss it with Jackson, and did not know whether Jackson used it. He also acknowledged that he did not inform the court after recognizing an earlier error in his count of prior expert qualifications.

Dr. Wolfe testified that ARCCA's prior work was performed under a Department of Justice contract and that, while that contract remained active, ARCCA could not enter a separate formal agreement with the defense. He said the 2024 report's conclusions did not change, he had no substantive defense discussions about that report before his earlier testimony, and he did not know a July invoice had been sent or paid. Wolfe also described ARCCA's later retention by the defense on March 26, 2025, its expedited review and testing in response to new material, and an anticipated May 7 completion date for the remaining analysis and report.

Brennan continued questioning Dr. Wolfe about the expected May 7 completion of ARCCA’s remaining work, including whether comparable review could have been completed earlier. Wolfe said the Department of Justice had provided verbal information about prior witness testimony before his earlier testimony, including reconstruction issues and potential DNA evidence, but said he had not been informed of a sequestration order and denied that the information changed his opinion. Exhibit No. 3, Wolfe’s outline, was marked. Wolfe also acknowledged that videos, raw data, notes, and photographs from ARCCA’s prior testing had not been produced for the first trial, while maintaining that materials for the current response to Dr. Wilcher had been provided.

Dr. Andrew Rentschler testified about communications with the defense before his earlier testimony, disputing that call records reflected 23 separate calls and describing his own records as showing three calls. He said Department of Justice personnel had updated him about trial testimony and events he had not known about, which helped him understand what was happening during trial. Over defense objection, the judge allowed questioning about sequestration; Rentschler said he had not known of the order. He also said his report was not yet complete and was estimated for May 7 or later, though he could try to expedite it if ordered.