8.Jessica Ulmer — Direct/Cross
198 linesJESSICA ULMER, Sworn
COURT CLERK: Have a seat. State your name. Spell your last name for the record. Keep your voice up and speak into the mic.
JESSICA ULMER: Special Agent Jessica Ulmer, U-l-m-e-r.
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. CHAKRAVARTY:
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Good afternoon, Agent Ulmer. You're an FBI agent?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes. I'm currently assigned to the New York division.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: How long have you been an FBI agent?
JESSICA ULMER: For six years.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: What did you do before that?
JESSICA ULMER: Prior to that I was a Dallas police officer in Dallas, Texas.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: For how long was that?
JESSICA ULMER: For five years.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Were you one of the Evidence Response Team personnel who responded to 67 Franklin Street area in Watertown, Massachusetts, back in 2013?
JESSICA ULMER: I was.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Were you notified that someone had been arrested that evening and that area needed to be processed?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Was the area secure when you arrived?
JESSICA ULMER: There was multiple first responders still at the scene upon our arrival. At that point we locked down the scene and made it secure.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: What are some of the ways that you secure a scene?
JESSICA ULMER: I believe local P.D. shut down the street by putting police cars at the end of each block to make sure that there's no through-traffic going through. There was another squad car the block behind the location to prevent people kind of going through the yards. Then we also secured the front of what we deemed to be the crime scene location by having a person sit out there with a table with an entry log, and then we logged any person that came or went from the crime scene at that point.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: You were with your New York Evidence Response Team?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Were there other Evidence Response Teams that worked that scene over the next several days?
JESSICA ULMER: We were relieved the following morning by the team from Pittsburgh.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Did it continue like that where different teams would relieve each other over the course of the week?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes. It was typically one team at a time that was processing the scene.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: How soon after the arrest of the individual did you arrive?
JESSICA ULMER: Approximately maybe an hour, an hour and a half. I'm not sure what time he was arrested. We got there at 9:45.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: What happened when you got there?
JESSICA ULMER: Upon arrival, we took custody of the scene. All the First Responders, anyone that was still remaining at the scene, left. And we began to process the scene.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Was there a boat on the scene?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes, there was.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Was there a shed as well?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes. There was a shed behind 63 but also 67.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: So there was a shed on the property of 67 Franklin Street?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes, next to the boat. And then there was also a shed on 63.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: 63 is the neighboring property?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes, to the right.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: What separated 67 Franklin Street from 63 Franklin Street?
JESSICA ULMER: There was a small raised sort of cement wall that was maybe approximately two feet high.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: As you were surveying the scene, determining where you would look to collect evidence, how far around the area of the boat did you go?
JESSICA ULMER: As far as the line search?
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: No, before, when you're just assessing where --
JESSICA ULMER: So upon arrival we did what was called an initial walk-through. Basically two agents from the ERT team went through and kind of looked for what type of evidence was going to be collected, what kind of forensic processing needed to be done. The initial walk-through I think encompassed 63 and 67. We did end up also looking at some of the property in 71 and 73 as well.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: 71 and 73 Franklin Street?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: What did you identify in -- let's start with 73 Franklin Street?
JESSICA ULMER: 73 Franklin Street, there was a parked vehicle in the driveway. We observed some blood splatter on the hood of the parked vehicle.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: What did you find at 71 Franklin Street?
JESSICA ULMER: 71 Franklin Street, there was some blood on a garage door.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And 67 Franklin Street, where the boat was, I gather you saw blood?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes, inside the boat.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: How about 63 Franklin, the adjoining property?
JESSICA ULMER: 63 Franklin Street, there was actually an interior bathroom that was kind of the back entrance to the house. There had been some -- I believe it was broken glass or something and blood on the floor of that bathroom that we found. And then we also found two cell phones and a debit card there.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: We'll get to that in a second. You had started to talk about this earlier. But at some point was a line search done?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes. So one of the first things that we did is we wanted -- we knew that the boat was going to be a major piece of evidence, so we wanted to clear a path to and from the boat, an entry point for future technicians to use. So we did a line search to make sure that there was no evidence that was going to get destroyed on the path going to the boat. So what we did is we stood shoulder to shoulder and did a line search through the grass from the front of the parking lot at 63 up and into the entrance to the boat. Then we marked any potential evidence, small items typically, with flags.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And did you and others go around the area after doing the line search and identify other pieces of evidence?
JESSICA ULMER: The only piece of evidence that we identified was anything that was going to potentially be destroyed. At the time of our arrival, it started to sprinkle. Shortly after, it started to downpour. So we tried to look for any evidence that might be destroyed by the rain. We had been told by one of the First Responders upon arrival that there was two cell phones and debit card behind the shed at 63. So we collected those items to prevent any further damage. And then at that point we also looked for any blood evidence that might be washed away by the rain.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: What steps did you take to protect surfaces from the rain?
JESSICA ULMER: We covered any blood evidence that we could with tarps or plastic to try to preserve it the best that we can. In the instance of the vehicle parked at 73, there was such a small amount and the vehicle was so wet that the best we could do was to use swabs to try to preserve the blood and submit it to the lab believing that a tarp wouldn't suffice to protect that one drop of blood that was on the hood.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: So what did you do to collect the evidence before the rain kind of washed away some of it?
JESSICA ULMER: For the blood or for the --
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: For physical evidence, sorry.
JESSICA ULMER: Okay. Well, in the case of blood evidence, what we'd do is a controlled swab in an area using sterile water to just make sure that there's no chemicals or something that might interfere in the actual Q-tips. Then we do swabbing of the actual blood sample and submit those to the laboratory for the analysis. Now, in the case of the phones and the debit card, the first thing we would do is photograph the items in place, which we did in this case, and then collect the items, package them, and submit them to the laboratory.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Let's look at the photographs, and we'll slow down the description of how you found those. Let's look at 807.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Just for the witness, please.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Do you recognize that?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: What is it?
JESSICA ULMER: So to the left of the picture is the boat. The shed behind 67 -- yeah, behind 67 is immediately in the middle of the picture, and to the right is the shed for 63.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Is this a fair and accurate picture of the crime scene either that evening or the next morning?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: 808.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Do you recognize what that photo is?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes. That's the area behind the shed of 63.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Is this a fair and accurate depiction of the -- that area as it appeared that evening that you were there?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And this is a dark photo that you can't see very much, right?
JESSICA ULMER: No.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: 802. I think this is in evidence.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: What is that?
JESSICA ULMER: That's the boat from 67. In this picture, it's uncovered. At the time we were there, it was covered by the tarp.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Exhibit 810.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: What is that?
JESSICA ULMER: These are the two cell phones and the debit card that we located behind the shed at 63.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Is this a fair and accurate depiction of how they appeared before you collected them?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And 811.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: What is that?
JESSICA ULMER: After the first photograph was taken in place, then we took the items out to document what was actually there in the pile. So in this case there's a black iPhone, a white iPhone. At the bottom is the backing of the white iPhone. And then a debit card.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: I'd move into evidence Exhibits 807, 808, 810, and 811.
MR. WATKINS: No objection.
THE COURT: Okay.
(Government Exhibit Nos. 807, 808, 810, 811 received into evidence.)
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Go back to 807, please, and publish.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Now, Agent Ulmer, would you just circle or make a notation with the pad of your finger on the screen the area where you found the cell phones and a bank card?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes. It would be right here.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And did you go over to that area and then take further -- with somebody else to take further pictures?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Can we go to Exhibit 808, please?
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Can you describe what this is?
JESSICA ULMER: So this is the area behind the shed at 63. It's a walkway. The white pole there you see is actually the corner of the shed, and to the left there would be a fence. Right around this area, close up to the wall, on the ground, on the base of the wall there is where the phones were located. Now, also, there's a bunch of loose slate in the area, and then these cement blocks.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: So there's cinderblocks as well as slate slabs?
JESSICA ULMER: Yeah. It appeared that the homeowner was doing some sort of construction, maybe putting slate in the back garage. So there's a bunch of piles of loose slate in the area.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Go to 810, please.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Is this what you saw that night?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: So can you describe what you're seeing here?
JESSICA ULMER: There's a larger, loose -- piece of loose slate at the bottom here. Here's a smaller piece of loose slate. They both had kind of white markings on them, particularly in this area right here. There was two damaged cell phones. The flakes from the damage were all over the slate from the white phone particularly. You could see in some of the areas here in the picture, it appeared they had flaked off right there. Then there was damage on the screen of the black iPhone as well. Underneath the phones was the debit card.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Is that this item here that I just underlined?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes. That's the debit card.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: The item you signaled over here that I just circled, about how large was that?
JESSICA ULMER: Approximately the size of the cell phone so about this big.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: You're making a motion about a little bit bigger than a candy bar?
JESSICA ULMER: Yeah.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: All right.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Exhibit 811, please.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Describe to the jury what this is.
JESSICA ULMER: This is the items laid out in a row for documentation purposes. It's a black iPhone, a debit card, a white iPhone, and the back of the white iPhone case.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Can you -- zooming in on the debit card, can you make out what that says?
JESSICA ULMER: Is it D-U -- I can't really read it.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Could it be D-u-n?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: M-e-n-g?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: There's a photograph of a young man? Sorry.
JESSICA ULMER: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Is there a photograph?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes. And the name was documented in the paperwork. I just can't read it here.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: That's fine. Now, when you collected these, did you process these pursuant to your Evidence Response Team protocol?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes, we did.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Were they put into bags?
JESSICA ULMER: They were.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: They were then further sent along the chain to whoever else had to either keep custody of it or analyze it?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes. They would have been sent to the Boston office, and then it would have been up to the case agent to do. Whether they wanted to send it to the lab for further processing would have been up to them.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: May I approach, your Honor?
THE COURT: You may.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: I've placed in front of you what's marked government Exhibit 812, 815, and 755.
JESSICA ULMER: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Do you recognize these?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes. These are the items I collected.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Are these the two phones and the bank card?
JESSICA ULMER: They are.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: All right. If you wouldn't mind just opening the white iPhone bag and putting the contents onto that board that I put --
JESSICA ULMER: Okay. Okay. Do you want me to take out the memory board or leave that?
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Why don't you leave that in the bag. Is that -- how would you describe that compared to the condition of that today versus the condition in which you first seized it?
JESSICA ULMER: It's a little bit more -- I believe, when they process it, the lab, they took the memory board out of the phone. However, the back section is very similar. It had been falling off like this. And this is the front screen of the phone. The night that I saw them, there was a lot of broken glass that was out on the slate behind the shed and a lot of these white sort of broken chips of white paint off the phone itself.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And the other two items of evidence, 815 and 755, are those substantially in the same condition as when you first seized those?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes. The black iPhone also has a very damaged, cracked front screen also similar to this one. However, the damage on the white phone was more severe.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: At this point, I'd move into evidence 812, 815, and 755.
MR. WATKINS: No objection.
THE COURT: Okay.
(Government Exhibit Nos. 755, 812, 815 received into evidence.)
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Retrieving the evidence, your Honor, if I could have the ELMO for a moment to publish?
THE COURT: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Now, Agent Ulmer, is this what you were talking about, these flakes that were coming off the phone?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes. It's glass shards and then there's also white paint flakes, like, right here that come off the back of the iPhone.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And can you point out the screen on this thing?
JESSICA ULMER: The screen is this area right here.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: The casing of the phone, can you see indentation on the casing of the phone?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: What do those appear to be caused by?
JESSICA ULMER: It appears to have been caused by some sort of object being smashed against the phone.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Is this the battery?
JESSICA ULMER: Yeah, I believe so.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Does this also have indentations in it?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And then the main housing, is this the condition you found it in?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Was the -- you mentioned some differences between the black iPhone and the white iPhone. How were they different?
JESSICA ULMER: On the white iPhone, there appeared to be heavier damage on it, and the back casing on the back of the cell phone had fallen off and was sort of located in the pile with the cell phones.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: After you seized these, did you continue to process the scene after the rain stopped?
JESSICA ULMER: No, we did not. We tried to cover as much of it and preserve the evidence as well as we could, but then at that point we froze the scene down and waited for daylight and waited for the team from Pittsburgh to take over the scene.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Go back to Exhibit 807 for a second to orient the jury again. Back to the exhibits.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Now, is this the boat at 67 Franklin Street?
JESSICA ULMER: It is.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And then that was -- that was the tarp that you put on there?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: And then this is the vicinity in which you found these phones?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: That's all I have, your Honor.
MR. WATKINS: Perhaps you could just keep 807 up there.
CROSS-EXAMINATION BY MR. WATKINS:
MR. WATKINS: Good afternoon. You talked about doing a line walk?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes.
MR. WATKINS: On Exhibit 807, that would have started from the right over to the boat?
JESSICA ULMER: It actually started from the driveway at 63 coming from the front of the house, down the driveway, and then took a left up the wall here. And then if you see the area between the two crime scene tapes here, that's the area that we cleared.
MR. WATKINS: And that was part of that line walk?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes.
MR. WATKINS: In that portion of that area, did you observe blood stains?
JESSICA ULMER: It would have been very difficult to. It was nighttime. So I don't recall -- we looked for more larger objects such as bullet casings and stuff like that.
MR. WATKINS: But this area in the middle here, that was -- it was beaten down for want of a better word? There was lots of evidence of activity there?
JESSICA ULMER: Yes.
MR. WATKINS: I have nothing further, your Honor.
MR. CHAKRAVARTY: Nothing further.
THE COURT: All right. Thank you, Agent. You may step down.
That's it for the morning; and, as a matter of fact, for you, jurors, it's it for the day again. The lawyers have something else to attend to this afternoon. We won't be able to continue. We will generally keep to the schedule, but this is an exception. We'll break a little bit early for you. I think there's a lunch waiting for you. After lunch, you can go on your way. Enjoy the rest of the day, and we'll see you tomorrow and continue with the presentation of the evidence. We'll be in recess.
COURT CLERK: All rise for the Court and jury. Court will be in recess.
(Whereupon, at 1:06 p.m. the trial recessed.)