SALEM— The trial of Lynn man Marcus Carlisle and Everett man Tyrell Berberena, who are accused of murdering Lynner Noe Hernandez and injuring four others in a drive-by shooting on July 4, 2020, pressed on Wednesday at Salem Superior Court.
Sgt. Thomas Sullivan of the Massachusetts State Police was the first to testify. He was asked about a series of text messages that were extracted from an iPhone that was allegedly in the possession of Carlisle.
Sullivan, who is currently assigned to the Essex County State Police Detective Unit, received the cellphone from Massachusetts State Trooper Brendan Carnes after Carlisle was arrested in Los Angeles, California. He then extracted data from the phone using Cellebrite and GrayKey, software that are used as iPhone forensics tools to extract cellular data.
Prosecutor Susan Dolhun asked Sullivan to explain the extractions that he performed on the phone.
“I did two types of extractions. One was the advanced logical through Cellebrite, the second was through GrayKey,” he said. “The GrayKey was able to obtain a passcode for the phone and I myself conducted a five-system extraction through the GrayKey.”
Upon gaining access to the phone, Sullivan was instructed to collect data specific to the dates between July 4, 2020, and July 6, 2020. However, the defense later noted in their cross-examination that data was extracted from the phone outside of those parameters, but not evaluated as a part of the investigation.
Sullivan testified that the phone was activated for the first time on July 4, 2020.
“Based on the download, the first time any events associated with the phone registered were on July 4, 2020 at 6:48 Eastern time, so 3:48 p.m. Pacific time,” he said.
Dolhun then had him review SMS text messages that were sent and received from the phone as well as a contact list that was retrieved. On July 4, 2020 at 8:44 p.m., the phone had stored a contact with a number saved in the phone as “Rell.” Earlier in the trial, Elijah Fontes-Wilson, the alleged driver of the truck used in the shooting, testified that “Rell” was a nickname for Berberena.
A number with a 207 area code was also saved without a name, and another contact was saved on July 5, 2020 at 12:02 p.m. Eastern time under the name “Lil Reckless” with a 781 area code.
Another number was searched in the contact list with a 339 area code, however Sullivan stated that the number did not appear on the list.
Dolhun asked Sullivan “Were there several incoming and outgoing calls between this phone number and the contact ‘Lil Reckless’ on July 5, 2020?” to which he responded “Yes, there were.”
Sullivan also testified that there were several incoming and outgoing calls between the phone and the 781 number on July 5 and 6. Dolhun then turned to the SSID, or network that the phone was trying to connect to on July 4.
“What did you notice about the SSID shown here on July 4, 2020 at 7:13 p.m. Eastern time?” she asked Sullivan.
“The SSID is listed as ‘Rascal’s iPhone,’” he responded. He also added, after being asked what that meant, that “the SSID is the network name of a wireless network. Based on this information, it appears the phone tried to connect to this (Rascal’s iPhone) wireless network.”
In the text messages, the contact “Lil Reckless” had sent screenshots of a separate text exchange with another number. In the screenshotted text exchange, the number, which did not have a contact name, messaged “Lil Reckless,” talking about how he had made him go on a crash hit the day before his birthday. Earlier in the trial, Fontes-Wilson testified that the July 4 shooting took place one day before his birthday.
Day 12 of the trial is slated to continue Thursday morning at 9 a.m. at Salem Superior Court.
