Geolocation data OK’d for murder trial

FAYETTEVILLE — Prosecutors will be allowed to use cellphone, social media and other geolocation data in a murder trial set to begin next week, a judge ruled Friday.

Steven Maurice Rice, 24, of Pine Bluff and Keishayla Hill, 22, of Stuttgart are both charged with being accomplices to capital murder and tampering with physical evidence in the death of Mario Lamont Miller, 47, of Fayetteville on Aug. 11, 2020.

Both capital murder and accomplice to capital murder have the same penalties, but prosecutors don’t necessarily have to prove who pulled the trigger to get a conviction with the latter.

Rice’s trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday in Washington County Circuit Court. Hill will be tried at a later date.

Prosecutors have waived the death penalty against Rice. If convicted, Rice would be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Fayetteville police were called to an area on East Robinswood Lane around 8:45 p.m. Aug. 12 to investigate a reported death. A caller said he had found a dead man near a wooded area. When they arrived, police found Miller’s body lying near the trees with a gunshot wound to the head.

Police said Miller was robbed and killed by Rice and Hill, who also stole Miller’s 2011 Dodge Challenger.

Fayetteville police detectives, with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service, tracked down and arrested Hill and Rice in Pine Bluff.

The arrests were made possible by extensive use of cellphone data and information from social media postings, according to Matt Durrett, prosecuting attorney. Cellphone data showed one or two of the suspects going to and from Miller’s residence on the day he was killed. Cellphone data also placed them in the area of the shooting around the time it took place and in the immediate vicinity of where Miller’s body was found, according to Durrett.

Lee Short, Rice’s defense attorney, filed motions to exclude the data Friday.

Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay denied the motion, saying the data search area was not overly broad and that it is reasonable to believe that anyone who was around Miller’s body would have had a cellphone. Lindsay further noted that the only device discovered to be in the area during the time frame in question came back to Rice.

Police were able to determine a time frame to gather evidence based on witness descriptions of an unfamiliar car in the secluded area where Miller’s body was found.

The Dodge Challenger was unusual in appearance with some custom, after-market work having been done on the car, according to Durrett. Witnesses reported seeing the car, and police obtained surveillance video from several locations showing Rice in the car a few hours after the murder.

Other social media postings later showed the vehicle at the home of a relative of one of the suspects in the Pine Bluff area, according to Durrett.