Football Player Destroys Home Surveillance System

JH
John Honovich
Jun 26, 2013
IPVM

I just saw that the NFL player arrested for murder destroyed his home surveillance system, according to police.

It's interesting both as a sign of the increase in home video surveillance and the key role it now plays in crime investigations, even in a home.

Thank goodness for the player that he did not use cloud video surveillance ;)

U
Undisclosed
Jun 26, 2013

He smashed it (maybe with a bat?), but investigators were able to pull the video off of the HDD. The ADA citied video from multiple cameras in his address to the court. Also smashed his mobile phone but there too the investigators pull the SMS messages from storage showing texts back and forth between the victim and accused.

JH
John Honovich
Jun 26, 2013
IPVM

Good feedback! Makes sense - he probably figured breaking the recorder would be enough but did not realize the hard drives were still viable.

JH
John Honovich
Jun 27, 2013
IPVM

"Prosecutors said home surveillance videos from Hernandez’s house showed him in possession of firearms before and after Lloyd was killed"

"video recorded by 14 cameras trained on the outside and inside of Hernandez’s home"

From NYTimes article

Avatar
Michael Budalich
Jun 29, 2013
Genetec

Guy had a 40 million dollar contract and killed someone. I still can't wrap my head around it. What a complete waste of talent. But as is obvious from the details of the story he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

I watched the hearing live when I was in New Hampshire this week. Apparently when he went to the gas station he got Black and Mild cigars and cotton candy bubblicious gum. In the rental car they found a shell case matching his gun and a piece of the cotton candy bubble gum as well.

He is so screwed.

JG
John Grocke
Jul 01, 2013

I'm sure it's more of a question for legal experts, but can video from a person's home surveillance system be used in a court of law as evidence against them? Wouldn't that be some form of self-incrimination?

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Ethan Ace
Jul 01, 2013

That is a very good question.

JH
John Honovich
Jul 01, 2013
IPVM

Self-incrimination is typically defined as a person make statements against himself, e.g., "The right against self-incrimination forbids the government from compelling any person to give testimonial evidence that would likely incriminate him during a subsequent criminal case."

JG
John Grocke
Jul 01, 2013

Self-incrimination is typically defined as a person make statements against himself, e.g., "The right against self-incrimination forbids the government from compelling any person to give testimonial evidence that would likely incriminate him during a subsequent criminal case."

Maybe not...

Here's a few articles on a case involving a 5th amendment ruling on a password protected encrypted hard drive that might be a precedent once decided: and

Although I would guess the video surveillance system's hard drives would need to be encrypted in some manner. Do any VMS manufacturer's offer drive encryption as an option?

CP
Carlton Purvis
Jul 01, 2013

Yes it can be used against them in the same way receipts can be used to show someone bought fertilizer and the GPS in a person's car can be used to show what routes they'd driven over the last month.

JG
John Grocke
Jul 01, 2013

Maybe he should have pulled a "Tricky Dick" Nixon and have 18 minutes of blank surveillance footage. ;-P

Note to self: If doing something nefarious, be sure to disable recording on the surveillance system first.

JH
John Honovich
Jul 01, 2013
IPVM

A security professional told me a story about how he was asked to go to a jail to help them retrieve missing video. At first, the jail thought the system had failed. However, the security professional reviewed the logs and found that the system had been shut down for the time period in question. Evidently, someone in the jail pulled the plug before an incident and replugged it afterwards. Not good...

Part of the problem, of course, was that the machine and power cord was easily accessible by the guards.

JH
John Honovich
Jul 01, 2013
IPVM

The self-incrimination comes from having to provide information (i.e., the password) that would result in incriminating himself. The video itself would not fall under self-incrimination.

To that end, presumably you don't need encryption, even a non default password would create a similar situation.

JG
John Grocke
Jul 01, 2013

Note to self: If doing something nefarious and you forgot to disable recording, change the default password on the video surveillance system. ;-)

It may be moot if this an easily guessed password or the password requirement can be circumvented via programming or a back door.

(Sorry I'm not able to use the link tool in Chrome for some reason it's grayed out)

CP
Carlton Purvis
Jul 25, 2013

The court has released some pictures from the surveillance system. I haven't found any sites with all of them yet, but these two show him creeping around his house at 3:30 am with something that looks a lot like a gun in his hand.

JH
John Honovich
Jul 25, 2013
IPVM

Nice find. Carlton, if you (or anyone) can find what surveillance make / model he used, it would be very interesting.

Avatar
Marty Major
Jul 25, 2013
Teledyne FLIR

Dude named Michael Connors from Home-Tech Custom AV sold Hernandez his home system....

His site shows Honeywell Cameras...

CP
Carlton Purvis
Jul 25, 2013

Hmm. I can give Connors a call and ask him. And if he doesn't want to tell, I can ask the DA for evidence receipts.

Avatar
Marty Major
Jul 25, 2013
Teledyne FLIR

Also, the 'DVR stack with Remote' image he uses shows Speco DVRs

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