GPS murder case sets precedent

By Tom Grace
Cooperstown News Bureau

February 19, 2009 04:00 am

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NORWICH _ If George Ford Jr. is found guilty today in Chenango County Court of second-degree murder, the most important piece of evidence against him will have been the GPS receiver hidden inside his truck.

Before police knew about the device, Ford, who ran over and killed 12-year-old Shyanne Somers of South Otselic, was charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison.

But after police downloaded data from the Tracking Key device that Ford's wife had placed, he was charged with second-degree murder. If convicted today, Ford, 44, faces up to 25 years-to-life in prison.

Manufactured by Land Air Sea Systems of Cary, Ill., the Tracking Key is about the size of a pack of cigarettes and costs just under $200 online at Amazon.com and other sellers. It operates on three triple-A batteries and normally is accurate to within 2.5 meters, according to Steven Moehling, vice president for sales at the firm.

On Thursday, Moehling said Ford's case may be the first in the nation where a murder charge hinges on global positioning system evidence.

``GPS evidence has been part of other murder cases, but I think this is the first time the GPS was in the vehicle and operating during an alleged murder,'' he said.

Moehling was a prosecution witness at the Ford trial, but said he has no opinion on the defendant's innocence or guilt.

``I was there strictly to talk about the accuracy of the unit,'' he said.

And it is accurate, he added, especially when interpreted by someone familiar with its capabilities.

From military to civilian use

GPS receivers operate by calculating the travel time of radio waves from GPS satellites orbiting the Earth. With this measurement from four of 24 satellites in the GPS constellation, the receiver is able to deduce its own route, speed and stops, and the time for each.

``Actually, there are up to 32 satellites now, some for backup, but originally there were 24,'' Moehling said.

GPS grew out of radio navigation systems developed by the U.S. military starting in the 1920s, according to a history of GPS published by the Rand Corp.

The system evolved over decades and became available for widespread civilian use in the 1990s.

``On June 26, 1993 ... the U.S. Air Force launched the 24th Navstar satellite into orbit, completing a network of 24 satellites known as the Global Positioning System, or GPS,'' the National Park Service notes at www.nps.gov/gis/gps/history.html.

``With a GPS receiver that costs less than a few hundred dollars, you can instantly learn your location on the planet _ your latitude, longitude and even altitude _ to within a few hundred feet,'' the webpage continues.

A year later in 1994, Land Air Sea formed to develop and market GPS devices, said Moehling. Several other firms had similar ideas, and today names like Garmin and TomTom are familiar to many.

The journey to courtroom evidence

As the receivers become more common, evidence from them has made its way into courtrooms, even as secondary evidence at murder trials.

In December 2002, Laci Peterson of Modesto, Calif., was reported missing. According to CNN, police then ``placed GPS units on four vehicles used by Scott Peterson (her husband) to track his whereabouts.''

The units showed that Scott Peterson drove by San Francisco Bay, near where the bodies of his wife and unborn son eventually washed ashore.

``Prosecutors say the GPS evidence is circumstantial, but indicates Peterson behaved as if he were guilty by driving to San Francisco Bay in January 2003, possibly fearing someone would find the bodies,'' CNN reported.

The defense argued that GPS receivers produce unreliable evidence, saying they may malfunction and aren't always accurate even when working properly.

Peterson was convicted, although GPS evidence was not pivotal.

In this case, it is.

As Chenango County District Attorney Joseph McBride summed up his case Tuesday for Judge Joseph F. Cawley, he said, ``Thank God for the GPS ... Without the GPS, all the state would know is that what he said was untrue.''

McBride says GPS evidence shows that Ford lied to police about how Shyanne died.

Ford, who has acknowledged using cocaine in the hours before Shyanne died, has maintained he is innocent, that he ran over her accidentally.

His attorney, Randel Scharf of Cooperstown, has argued that GPS calculations can be off by more than 100 feet, and he said the units aren't useful for discerning whether a driver is deliberately or accidentally performing any action.

Ford's testimony doesn't conflict with GPS information downloaded from the receiver that was in his truck. Its conflict is with the prosecution's theory of what happened while, and after, the unit was resting by an empty seasonal residence near South Otselic from midnight to 3 a.m. July 8, 2007.

Ford said he tossed the unit out of his truck at about midnight, left with the girl and ran her over accidentally when she got out of the truck. Later, he said, he drove back to the isolated house to retrieve the receiver, stayed there awhile, then returned at a deliberate pace to her body by the roadside, lifted her into his truck and drove her to the hospital.

McBride said the GPS, the girl and Ford were together during the last three hours of her life before she got away from him. Then, McBride has argued, Ford ran her over after stalking her down Will Warner Road.

Ford has waived his right to a jury trial. Cawley, a Broome County judge who is presiding in this case, is scheduled to announce a verdict soon after court resumes at 3 p.m. today.

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