DETECTIVE
to individual cases. Now, he works on every homicide investigation. Every case involves cellphones or digital data in an era when people spend increasing amounts of time on social media, texting, using apps and visiting websites.
It turns out that killers tend to keep their phones with them when they prey.
Howe, 39, is still on the third-shift roster, but he spends all his time securing warrants to access information from online accounts and cellphones tied to violent crimes, and searching through phones.
In one case, a couple of people were robbed of cellphones. The culprits started taking selfies with one of the cellphones, which was tied into the cloud and would automatically upload new photos. Police arrested the pair soon after.
“They do really dumb stuff on phones,” Howe said. “Dumb stuff to get caught.”
Howe has worked for the Columbus Division of Police for more than 16 years, including as a patrol officer and a detective in the assault unit. He was working on assault cases when he began using digital forensics to solve cases and learned about the technology from a co-worker. His current assignment is the most rewarding, he said.
“This is, by far, the most fun,” Howe said. “It’s tough work. ... Phones change monthly. New models come out, new software, new apps. So you have to really keep on top of it. ... It’s interesting to lock people up on digital habits.”
The police division acquired all the equipment and software that Howe uses from the federal government in exchange for lending him to the U.S. Secret Service to help on fraud cases, he said.
“They work really well with local law enforcement,” Howe said of the feds. “They supply us with lots of equipment. The training is the best I’ve ever been to.”
Howe also is one of no more than 100 people in the country who belong to the Scientific Working Group on Digital Evidence; its members are experts in digital and multimedia evidence, and it establishes best practices.
Howe is able to take apart certain types of cellphones and solder connections to bypass the software and get around passwords.
“Someone of his expertise is becoming more and Columbus police detective James Howe runs forensic software on an iPhone on his desk in a search for evidence. Columbus police homicide detective James Howe, shown in his office during his overnight shift, is among no more than 100 U.S. experts in digital and multimedia evidence who belong to the Scientific Working Group on Digital Evidence, which establishes best practices.
more important to every investigation,” said Sgt. Jeff Strayer, who oversees the police division’s third-shift homicide unit. “Everyone wants to use him. We have to prioritize. Hopefully, we’ll be able to increase or expand our investigative abilities in the future.”
Carroll, the suspect who answered his phone and was arrested, was one of three people convicted of having lured pizza-delivery driver James A. Flannery to a vacant East Side residence, where they robbed and shot him in the chest on July 30, 2015. Flannery, 59, managed to make it back to his vehicle and drive 2 miles before crashing.
The two crime scenes were far apart. Physical evidence alone wouldn’t lead to a killer, according to police.
The Papa John’s pizza shop where Flannery worked gave police the wrong phone number for the phone that submitted the order. Howe discovered the error when things weren’t lining up. He had to pull the phone records for the pizza company. The last two digits of the phone number submitted by the employees were transposed. The actual number that placed an order came back to a texting application out of California. A warrant was obtained to get the account information
from that company.
The company turned over both an email address that had been used to register the app, and an Android-phone ID number, according to court records. Howe also got a warrant for subscriber information from Google for the email account. That led back to Carroll. A search warrant was obtained for Metro PCS, the cellphone-service provider, and led to a specific phone number registered to a relative of Carroll’s.
With the email address and phone number, police were able to link socialmedia accounts to Carroll. Columbus police crime analysts started watching
his Facebook account.
Carroll posted on Facebook that he was checking in at OhioHealth Grant Medical Center to visit a patient. Officers in the division’s criminal intelligence unit responded and watched Carroll. Howe described to officers what the cellphone model looked like. Carroll appeared to be using it.
“Let’s call it. It will ring. We’ll just arrest him,” Howe said at the time.
Officers took Carroll into custody. Another warrant was obtained to access Carroll’s cellphone.
“We linked it all back to him,” Howe said.
The phone showed that the texting app had been downloaded the night before Flannery’s death. It also showed Google searches of news coverage of Flannery’s slaying.
Carroll initially denied the accusation he was involved in the slaying. But historical cell site data from the phone, which Howe routinely uses to debunk or verify alibis, placed Carroll near the scene at the time of Flannery’s shooting.
Carroll accepted a deal last year to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter with a gun specification. He’s serving a prison sentence of nine years and 11 months.
Howe said of the digital forensic work: “That case was kind of an eye-opener about how important it was and what could have been missed.”