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Terrance Black murder trial: Day Four
By Bill Conrad, bconrad@starlocalnews.com
For live updates throughout the trial, follow @Bill_PlanoStar on Twitter.
Original entry
Testimony will resume in the Terrance Black murder trial at 8:30 a.m. Among the witnesses potentially testifying today include criminalists, experts on cell phone location data and park rangers from the Grand Canyon.
Secret Service Agent Jeff Shaffer is on the stand testifying about cell phone tracking. He testified Terrance Black's cell phone was in the DFW Metroplex early on April 19, 2011 (the day Susan Loper disappeared) but began traveling toward West Texas later in the day.
Shaffer added that with a court order it is possible to track cell phones in real time. When using cell towers to track a phone Shaffer said the technology is more accurate in urban areas since towers are located closer together.
Shaffer was excused and is being followed on the stand by AT&T engineer Pete Evans.
Update 10:15 a.m.
AT&T engineer Pete Evans is still on the stand. He has detailed the step-by-step journey Terrance Black's phone took immediately after Susan Loper was killed. The phone left the Frisco area around 7:30 a.m. and headed toward El Paso, reaching the city at 6:29 p.m. After apparently spending the night in Deming, N.M., the phone traveled to Phoenix and then Flagstaff. By early afternoon on the day after Loper was killed, the phone was leaving Flagstaff and heading toward the Grand Canyon.
So far all the prosecutors have proven with Evans' testimony is that the phone, and therefore likely Black, went to Arizona. In their opening statements defense attorneys said Black attempted to kill himself because he owed his sister a large amount of money, not because he was feeling guilty for killing Loper.
Update 10:45 a.m.
After a brief mid-morning recess, Plano PD Detective Jeff Rich was called to testify.
Much of AT&T engineer Pete Evans' testimony focused on the journey Terrance Black's phone took to Arizona. Evans said the error rate on the AT&T call detail records is minimal, but admitted it is not possible to know exactly where a phone is located. Since the records receive data from cell towers, the accuracy varies depending on the density of the towers.
Defense attorney Jim Burnham got Evans to admit to the jury that it was not possible to place Black's phone at Gleneagles Country Club on the morning Loper was killed, or at the field where her body was dumped or the apartment complex where her vehicle was located. The technology only allows for the phone to be traced to the Frisco/Plano area, not a specific location.
Park rangers from the Grand Canyon have been spotted at the court house and are expected to testify today.
Update 11:05 a.m.
Photos of Terrance Black's injuries after he jumped off the Grand Canyon show that he may have cut his wrist prior to his suicide attempt.
"[The cut is] too clean and too straight to have happened in a fall," Detective Jeff Rich said. "... More intentional than accidental."
Other photos showed the ledge where Black landed after jumping. The rim of the canyon was partially wooded and had no guardrail.
Update 12:25 p.m.
Some big developments occurred with Detective Jeff Rich on the stand. Rich is a data recovery expert with the Plano Police Department and the FBI. Rich went step-by-step through calendar entries found on Terrance Black's iPhone, which was recovered in his vehicle at the Grand Canyon on April 22, 2011 -- three days after Susan Loper was killed.
Among the highlights include an entry on April 19, 2010 that said "Buy G", which the prosecution suggested could mean "gun." Another entry on May 2, 2010 read "D-Day, SL gotta go. Can't let a bastard have my hard work."
Several references were also made to Black's dates with other women. One entry mentioned how the woman better replace "SL," while another referred to "smoke" someone if they could not replace "SL."
The word "smoker" was included in two calendar entries in March and April 2011. The prosecution asked Detective Rich if Black typing "smoker" could mean "smoke her?" Rich said yes, an answer the defense objected to. However, Judge John Roach overruled the objection.
The morning's testimony was completed shortly after noon with additional testimony by Rich about text messages sent and received by Black the day after Loper died. Upon hearing of Loper's death from a friend, Black asked what happened? He told the person he had been out of town since Monday. Black also sent a message to his sister that afternoon apologizing for being a parasite and hinted he was going to kill himself.
The court took a recess for lunch after the completion of Rich's testimony.
Update 1:35 p.m.
Detective Jeff Rich is still on the stand. He read dozens of texts sent and received by Susan Loper in the days before her death. Many of the texts were between her, her ex-husband Craig Loper and her boyfriend at the time of her death, Jayson Hayes. Other than normal small talk, there didn't appear to be anything of substance in the texts.
Also, earlier when Rich was reading from Black's iPhone calendar, there was an entry on Nov. 29, 2009 reading "Lost her again. (Expletive) eHarmony."
Update 2:10 p.m.
The last access to Susan Loper's Yahoo email account came from an IP address belonging to Terrance Black. The access came at 9:05 p.m. on April 18, 2011, the night before Loper was killed, Detective Jeff Rich testified.
Update 3 p.m.
Under cross-examination defense attorney Jim Burnham and Detective Jeff Rich went through dozens of text messages between Susan Loper and her on-again, off-again boyfriend Jayson Hayes. At one point in March 2011 Loper said she wanted to cut all ties with Hayes.
"Looks like I will be rejoining eHarmony real soon," she texted someone in her phone book named Gidget. "I am back on the market. We will have to swap stories from the good and bad matches."
She also texted her friend Julie Mitchell.
"So I should have listened to you months ago," Loper wrote. "You saw things I didn't want to see. Jayson and I are over for good."
The defense team mentioned the bad breakup during their opening argument, and have been attempting to paint Hayes as a suspect that should have been investigated by Plano PD. However, further text messages showed that Hayes and Loper were a couple again by late March or early April.
Update 5:15 p.m.
Two women who witnessed Terrance Black jump off the rim of the canyon, as well as several park rangers testified about the moments surrounding the suicide attempt.
Patty Johnson said her and her family were in the park for the day and saw the leap, as well as the immediate aftermath.
"We watched him dive into the trees," Johnson told the jury, adding she was less than 40 yards away. "He hit a pine tree and like a marble in a game he fell to the ground."
Special Agent Phil Oaks testified he and Ranger Cori Conner attempted to speak with Black about whether he was panhandling in the park. Oaks said Black said his name was Jeffrey Stevens, and after walking a short distance away, began to move swiftly down a trail and toward the rim. Once there, he jumped off, a move Oaks described as "like a cat jumping sideways."
Ranger Conner testified about how a suicide note from Black was found several miles away during an investigation of another suicide attempt four days after Black's. The note apologized to his family for being a "mooch," and said his "debts were too high" and he "had made too many mistakes."
Update 5:38 p.m.
FBI Special Agent Amy Avila is part of a five-person evidence response team that searched the black Cadillac Escalade belonging to Terrance Black.
Among the items recovered by the team were a passport, two laptops, an iPhone and at least two pocket knives, one of which was stained with a red substance Avila said the team believed was blood. A clump of hair was also found, which was unusual.
"I have never found a clump of hair in a vehicle I have searched," Avila told the jury.
The search also turned up one pair of gloves.
The trial ran a little past 5:30 p.m. today, something Judge John Roach apologized for. After court, Prosecutor John Schomburger said the state could wrap up its case by Wednesday. The defense gave no indication of how long it would take.
Court will resume at 9 a.m. Friday morning.
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