Griswold triple-murder case starts up again after six-week pause for jury selection

NEW LONDON – Triple-murder suspect Sergio Correa’s iPhone 7 was the main subject of a suppression hearing on Monday in New London Superior Court.

Police seized the device in December 2017 as they investigated the murders of Griswold residents Janet and Kenneth Lindquist and the whereabouts of their son, Matthew.

The trial is set to begin in November. After a six-week break for jury selection, Correa's defense team this week is expected to try to prevent several pieces of evidence from being presented to the jury next month.

The evidentiary hearing Monday focused for several hours on the FBI’s chain-of-custody process and how an expert was finally able to access the locked phone. A decision on the phone's evidentiary allowance was not made by Monday's deadline, and it's not yet clear when the judge will rule on any of the defense's suppression motions.

Public Defender Joe Lopez contends the phone was seized illegally by state police detectives during a Dec. 28, 2017 interview with his client, who was considered at the time a person of interest, but not yet a suspect, in the crimes.

The phone was taken without a warrant, though the state argues police had probable cause for its seizure under exigent circumstances, as they believed it had been used in the commission of a crime.

Troopers said Matthew Lindquist’s phone led police to Correa’s apartment in Hartford. Records showed Correa was the last person to have phone communications with the 21-year-old whose body was found in a wooded area near his family’s home months after being stabbed to death.

FBI Special Agent Brian Cooney, an expert in cell phone data extraction and the state’s first witness, testified he used GrayKey cell phone forensic software to gain access to the phone’s four-digit PIN number – 2648 - which allowed the phone’s data, including text messages, to be accessed and downloaded onto a file.

Previously:Jurors will not hear of Correa's criminal past at Griswold triple-murder trial

Under direct examination by Assistant State’s Attorney Marissa Goldberg, Cooney said he received the phone in June 2018 from the bureau’s New Haven office and plugged the device into a GrayKey “box” which introduced a software agent into the phone.

“It’s just like charging a phone,” Cooney testified.

About a month later, the phone’s PIN popped up on the screen, but so did a mysterious white screen asking the user to press a home key.

Cooney told Lopez, during his cross-examination, that such an instruction box had never before showed up on any of the other of hundreds of phones he’s been asked to access. Cooney later said he was confident the unusual screen notification had no effect on the phone’s data.

Cooney likened the PIN extraction process to that of attempting entry to a locked storage locker.

“You can try to use a key or break, pick or cut the lock, but that does not affect what’s inside the storage container,” he said.

During his cross, Lopez raised questions about Cooney’s expertise, his Quantico, Virginia lab’s accreditation and the accuracy of the GrayKey program. When questioned by Goldberg on re-direct, Cooney re-iterated that the PIN-accessing work would not have affected or corrupted any user-generated content on Correa’s phone.

More witnesses, including another FBI agent, police and others, were expected to testify throughout the week on Lopez’s suppression motions. The hearing was the first since a nearly six-week jury selection process that spanned the summer ended last month with the seating of 12 jurors and six alternates.

More on this case:Ruth Correa pleads guilty in Griswold family slaying case; 40-year sentence expected

The case is being prosecuted by Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Stephen Carney, Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Thomas DeLillo and Goldberg. Lopez is being assisted by Attorney Corrie-Ann Mainville. Judge Hunchu Kwak is presiding.

During the proceedings, the 29-year-old Correa sat at the defense table in a dark blue suit, striped tie and face mask.

Correa, who is being held on $3 million in bail, is accused, along with his adopted sister, Ruth, of fatally stabbing Matthew Lindquist before Sergio Correa brutally beat Kenneth and Janet to death in the hours before and after midnight on Dec. 20, 2017 at their 70 Kenwood Estates home as part of a scheme to steal rifles from the family’s home.

Both Correas are charged with murder with multiple victims, three counts of felony murder, home invasion, first-degree robbery, first-degree arson and second-degree arson.

Ruth Correa previously confessed to helping her brother stab and chop Matthew Lindquist to death with a machete, but denied taking part in the two parents’ murders – an assertion Correa disputes. Sergio Correa is also accused of burning down the Lindquist’s home before he and his sister made off with several stolen items, including bags of Christmas gifts. 

Ruth Correa previously testified the robbery was planned by her sibling and Matthew Lindquist as part of a drugs-for-guns exchange in which Matthew Lindquist agreed to help stage a robbery at his parents’ home for heroin.

Ruth Correa, who pleaded guilty to three counts of felony murder, is expected to again testify against her sibling — as she did during a previous probable cause hearing — in exchange for a flat 40-year sentence on three counts of felony murder.

John Penney can be reached at jpenney@norwichbulletin.com or at (860) 857-6965