Defence cross-examines Windsor police detective as murder trial continues

The defence suggested there were errors in cellphone record analysis Wednesday in the continuation of the trial of a Brampton man who has been charged in the 2018 shooting death of a University of Windsor student.

Kahli Johnson-Phillips, 27, is faces charges of first-degree murder in the death of Jason Pantlitz-Solomon and injury to his girlfriend who were shot by two suspects while standing on Ouellette Avenue near University Avenue on Aug. 27, 2018.

Windsor police Det. Rob Hanna returned to the stand Wednesday for cross-examination of his evidence by defence lawyer Michael Moon.

“I’m going to suggest to you sir, there are things you do not even know you don’t know,” Moon said to Hanna, after a full day of going through the reports on data extracted from two cellphones seized as part of the investigation.

Both were seized by Peel Regional Police in the days after the shooting, and officers there used a forensic software program (Cellebrite) to extract data.

Data which Hanna then analyzed.

In it, the police and now the Crown allege they found evidence to support one of the phones was used by Johnson-Phillips at the time of the shooting.

The jury has previously heard Pantlitz-Solomon was waiting outside that night for a person his girlfriend had never heard of, to sell marijuana.

Moon however, argues Hanna “curated” his findings with “false, narrow search parameter” geared to find evidence against his client.

“I’m gonna suggest you had a conclusion when you started your investigation,” Moon said to Hanna, who denied the allegation.

“At no point do I recall seeing somebody else as the user,” Hanna testified.

In his direct evidence, Hanna presented the cellphone data evidence for usage between Aug. 1, 2018 to Aug. 28, 2018 based on his understanding of the search warrant details.

Moon asked him to explain then why he included in his report images of Johnson-Phillips from late July.

“I can’t speak to that other than (to say) Cellebrite provided it,” Hanna testified.

The jury did learn the actual dates for the search warrants of items related to this investigation were from June 2018 to Feb. 2019.

He also admitted to the jury he made a mistake by including an image in one cellphone report that was actually from the other cellphone seized by police.

During his direct evidence, the jury also saw several google map searches for addresses in Brampton to Windsor.

On cross examination, Hanna clarified the actual links were from searches he did, after the fact, based on GPS coordinates found in the cellphones.

Hanna’s cross examination will continue Thursday.  

Jason Solomon appeared in a student feature in the University of Windsor publication The Lance in 2017.(Courtesy Selina McCallum for The Lance)