Testimony About Snapchat Messages Not Precluded by “Best Evidence” Rule
From Turner v. State, decided Thursday by the Arkansas Supreme Court (in an opinion by Justice Shawn Womack):
The evidence presented at trial establishes the following account of events. On April 26, 2021, Shelby and Verser were sitting in a parked car after returning from dinner when they were ambushed by three gunmen. In a matter of seconds, twenty-three bullets were fired into the vehicle, striking Shelby and Verser repeatedly, killing both. Shelby, age twenty, and Verser, age twenty-three, were killed instantly. Turner, a close acquaintance of Shelby’s, was implicated in facilitating the ambush. Testimony and phone records from the night showed that Turner had communicated with the gunmen multiple times just before the shooting, despite later denying that he knew them. These communications—coupled with security footage and witness testimony—presented Turner as the primary organizer of the murders….
After the shooting, Turner attempted to conceal his involvement…. [Among other things, a] key witness, … Pavliv[,] testified that after she informed Turner of police questioning, he sent a Snapchat messa
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