Bryan Kohberger’s defense has hired a retired police officer who now hosts a true crime podcast to “prove” he was out driving all by himself on the night four University of Idaho college students were slaughtered in their beds.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, the expert, Sy Ray, founded ZetX Corporation, which provides tools for analytical mapping, in 2014 and sold the company to LexisNexis in 2021.
Ray now lives on a ranch in Arizona and hosts the Socialite Crime Club podcast.
According to his CV, Ray’s 20 years of law enforcement experience included 13 years in criminal investigations and 8 years in SWAT/tactical operations. He lists development of training courses and training tactical units in cellular tracking and operations experience.
He says he has provided “expert testimony and court consultation” in Utah, Arizona, Montana, Colorado, New York, California, Florida, and Texas.
According to Newsweek, Ray’s testimony about cell phone movements helped convict Danielle Wood in 2021 of the 2018 murder of her ex-boyfriend in Montana.
It’s not clear if Ray still uses the technology his former company uses, although he apparently testifies in cases that involve its use. That technology, Trax, was barred from a Colorado courtroom last year after a judge heard testimony from law enforcement and others who found the technology lacking. He ruled that the company’s “flashy maps” hid a “sea of unreliability that the jury won’t see,” the Colorado Springs Gazette reported.
District Court Judge Juan Villaseñor’s ruling was specific to ZetX and its Trax technology and did not include any other cellular tracking companies.
“In sum, Trax and its methods have been routinely (and sharply) admonished by the scientific and legal community, and the people haven’t directed the court to any evidence showing otherwise,” Villaseñor wrote in his ruling.
He also said that Ray, who claimed Trax maps were 94 percent to 96 percent accurate, was not a credible witness.
“He inflated his credentials, inaccurately claiming to be an engineer,” the judge wrote, saying that Ray had testified that he is “more of an engineer than an engineer.”
“As noted, his sole academic degree is an associates, and there’s no evidence that it’s related to engineering. Nor is there evidence that Ray’s taken any engineering classes,” the judge wrote. “To be sure, he’s created a booming business and has successfully pitched Trax to several law-enforcement agencies. But a sound business model doesn’t equal an accurate error rate.”
Kohberger’s public defender, Anne Taylor, listed Ray as her expert witness last week when she filed a notice to provide an alibi to Kohberger’s whereabouts on November 13, 2022, when Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin, and Kaylee Goncalves were murdered.
041724 Notice Defendants Supplemental Response States AD by kc wildmoon on Scribd
“Mr. Kohberger was out driving in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022; as he often did to hike and run and/or see the moon and stars,” the filing reads. “He drove throughout the area south of Pullman, Washington, west of Moscow, Idaho including Wawawai Park.”
“Mr. Kohberger intends to offer testimony of Sy Ray, CSLI expert, (cell tower, cell phone and other radio frequency, curricula vitae is attached) to show that Bryan Kohberger’s mobile device was south of Pullman, Washington and west of Moscow, Idaho on November 13, 2022; that Bryan Kohberger’s mobile device did not travel east on the Moscow-Pullman Highway in the early morning hours of November 13th, and thus could not be the vehicle captured on video along the Moscow-Pullman highway near Floyd’s Cannabis shop.”
Investigators have said that Kohberger’s phone was traveling on the night of the murders but that it had stopped responding to cell phone towers during the time of murders, as CrimeOnline reported. That would likely indicate that the phone was turned off during that time.
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[Featured image: Bryan Kohberger. (Latah County Jail via AP)]
