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Accused murderer's cell phone dials up evidence, jury hears

Martin Forget and Brian Quesnel are charged with first-degree murder in the death of Orillia's Joseph Simonds
2020-02-18 Vehicle14 JO-001
A police evidence photo of the interior of the black Chrysler 300 seized from Natalie Forget, showing the police evidence bag containing the Motorola XT in the centre console.

Whenever you get a text message or a phone call, your cellular phone provider is tracking your location.

On Tuesday morning, the trial of Martin Forget and Brian Quesnel continued with testimony from Danielle Fortier, a manager in the lawful access response department with Rogers Communications.

Forget and Quesnel are charged with first-degree murder in the death of Orillia man Joseph Simonds.

Fortier testified that the number associated with the Motorola XT phone recovered in the Chrysler 300 seized from Natalie Forget was paid for through Chatter, which is a pre-paid subsidiary of Rogers. As Chatter is pre-paid, there is no identification, verification or credit check required for phones associated with these accounts.

The phone was registered to John Smith. However, during cross-examination, defence counsel Alan Brass said the phone was owned by Martin Forget.

From June 3 to 4, 2017, Fortier testified that the phone was tracked leaving Quebec, travelling up to Barrie, then to Orillia based on the cellular towers that connected with the device along the way every time the phone sent or received a text message or a phone call.

At about 4 a.m. on June 4, the phone then travelled east out of Orillia, south on Highway 12 then continued back to Quebec, arriving there at about 11:54 a.m.

Fortier was asked on the stand about the content of any messages.

“We do not keep content of text messages,” said Fortier.

During testimony last week from from OPP digital forensic analyst/investigator Jeremy Dupuis, location data recovered from the phone showed it was in Orillia in the vicinity of Albany Avenue on June 4, 2017 at about 12:28 a.m., and was in the vicinity of Atherley Road at 2:53 a.m., when it pinged off Tim Hortons’ wireless network.

There were three images recovered from the phone: a photo of Brian Quesnel, a photo of Martin Forget and a photo of the two together.

The web search history on the phone also showed searches on June 4 and 5, 2017 for news articles surrounding the death of Joseph Simonds, as well as buy-and-sell searches for vehicles.

The trial continues Wednesday.

To read about Day 1 of this trial, including opening arguments and first witnesses, click here.

To read about Day 2, including witness testimony from forensic investigators, click here.

To read about Day 3 and Day 4, which saw Sonny Brokenshire testify, click the links.

To read about Day 5, outlining links between the Chrysler 300 and the crime, click here.

To read about Day 6, where a digital forensic investigator presented text messages between some of the players in this case, click here.


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Jessica Owen

About the Author: Jessica Owen

Jessica Owen is an experienced journalist working for Village Media since 2018, primarily covering Collingwood and education.
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