Legal Juice
This may sound crazy, but when you make a call on your cell phone, there’s a record of it. And that record can come back to bite you in the arse, as may very well happen to this New Hampshire man. As reported by The New Hampshire Union Leader:
An alleged serial burglar who prosecutors say called his victims to see if they were home testified that he had nothing to do with breaking into seven homes in Rockingham County.
Joshua Fowler, 34, formerly of Sandown and Derry, is on trial for playing a role in the break-ins that happened at homes in Derry, Londonderry and Hampstead between October 2009 and March 2010.
He is accused of either burglarizing the homes on his own, or working as an accomplice. Prosecutors said Wednesday that a key piece of evidence against Fowler was his cell phone calls made to the targeted homes prior to the break-ins.
“It’s a classic circumstantial case,” Assistant County Attorney Jerome Blanchard told a judge Wednesday.
Seems like pretty strong circumstantial evidence. So what was Mr. Fowler’s explanation?
… sometimes, he told jurors, he did loan one of his cell phones to a friend, which was later connected to the break-ins.
Wow. That is an incredible series of coincidences, what with there being seven burglaries over six months! But there was other evidence presented.
Homeowners and police were called to testify about the stolen merchandise, which included jewelry, a Macintosh laptop computer and a LCD flat screen television.
Blanchard confronted Fowler about the phone calls made to the homes on his cell phone, and trips to pawn shops that Fowler made that year.
Okay. How about that?
Fowler testified that two valuables he sold — a Claddagh ring and a bar of silver — were not stolen but were given to him by his parents.
Blanchard confronted Fowler citing the testimony of homeowners who claimed the valuables belonged to them.
“Anyone can claim anything,” Fowler said. “I don’t see no serial numbers on them.”
The Juice isn’t there. And he is also skeptical of pretty much all reporting. But if this is a fair summary of the proceedings, it’s not looking too good for Mr. Fowler. You’ll find the source here, including a photo from the trial.