Jonathon Tyson Blair v. The State of Wyoming

2022 WY 121, 517 P.3d 597
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 28, 2022
DocketS-22-0001
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 2022 WY 121 (Jonathon Tyson Blair v. The State of Wyoming) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jonathon Tyson Blair v. The State of Wyoming, 2022 WY 121, 517 P.3d 597 (Wyo. 2022).

Opinion

IN THE SUPREME COURT, STATE OF WYOMING

2022 WY 121

APRIL TERM, A.D. 2022

September 28, 2022

JONATHON TYSON BLAIR,

Appellant (Defendant),

v. S-22-0001

THE STATE OF WYOMING,

Appellee (Plaintiff).

Appeal from the District Court of Sweetwater County The Honorable Suzannah G. Robinson, Judge

Representing Appellant: Office of the State Public Defender: Diane M. Lozano, State Public Defender; Kirk A. Morgan, Chief Appellate Counsel. Argument by Mr. Morgan.

Representing Appellee: Bridget L. Hill, Attorney General; Jenny L. Craig, Deputy Attorney General; Joshua C. Eames*, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Catherine M. Mercer**, Assistant Attorney General. Argument by Ms. Mercer.

Before FOX, C.J., and KAUTZ, BOOMGAARDEN, GRAY, and FENN, JJ.

*An Order Allowing Withdrawal of Counsel was entered on August 1, 2022.

**An Order Allowing Withdrawal of Counsel was entered on September 2, 2022. NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in Pacific Reporter Third. Readers are requested to notify the Clerk of the Supreme Court, Supreme Court Building, Cheyenne, Wyoming 82002, of any typographical or other formal errors so that correction may be made before final publication in the permanent volume. BOOMGAARDEN, Justice.

[¶1] Following a jury trial, Jonathon Tyson Blair was convicted of burglary, theft, and property destruction for breaking into his workplace and stealing approximately $16,000 in cash from the owner’s desk. At trial, the district court admitted WiFi records showing only one electronic device—Mr. Blair’s Apple iPhone—connected to the business’s password protected WiFi network on the night of the burglary. Mr. Blair argues the district court erred by admitting those records under the business records exception to the hearsay rule. We affirm.

ISSUE

[¶2] Did the district court abuse its discretion by admitting WiFi records under the business records exception to the hearsay rule?

FACTS

[¶3] Hager Industries—a machining, welding, and fabrication business in Rock Springs, Wyoming—was burglarized late on the evening of October 17, 2019. The surveillance system recorded someone running toward the building at 10:49 p.m., tilting a camera in the reception area up toward the ceiling at 11:04 p.m., and then running from the building at 11:05 p.m. 1 An office window was broken and approximately $16,000 in cash was missing from the owner’s desk. 2

[¶4] In an effort to identify who committed the burglary, Mr. Hager asked Sweetwater Technology Services—the company that managed Hager Industries’ password protected WiFi network—whether any devices connected to the WiFi on the night of the burglary. Senior engineer Russell Snody found only one device connected to the WiFi during that timeframe.

[¶5] The device connected at 10:52 p.m. and disconnected at 11:15 p.m. It was an Apple iPhone with a MAC address of e0:89:7e:8e:70:90, and it connected to the WiFi other times in the last 30 days. That the device connected other times caused Mr. Hager to suspect the device belonged to a Hager Industries employee, as employees were provided the WiFi password. On comparing the WiFi records to his employees’ timesheets, Mr. Hager

1 The timestamp on the surveillance videos was approximately 38 minutes behind the actual time. We refer to the actual time. 2 The owner, Nathaniel Hager, operated a wholesale CBD supplement business from the same location as Hager Industries. Due to banking issues, it was a cash business. He often kept a small amount of cash in his office desk during the week from sales to family and friends. He stored the CBD business’s profits in a bank bag offsite and then brought it to the office at the end of each week to settle accounts with his salesperson. He rarely left the bank bag in his desk overnight but inadvertently did so on October 17.

1 concluded Mr. Blair—an inspector for Hager Industries—likely committed the burglary. He turned the WiFi records and timesheets over to police.

[¶6] Detective Michelle Hall compared the WiFi records for MAC address e0:89:7e:8e:70:90 to Mr. Blair’s timesheets. She concluded the times when the device connected to and disconnected from the WiFi “correlated exactly” to the times when Mr. Blair clocked in and out for work during the last 30 days. Police seized Mr. Blair’s Apple iPhone and confirmed its MAC address was e0:89:7e:8e:70:90.

[¶7] Based on this and other circumstantial evidence, 3 the State charged Mr. Blair with burglary, theft, and property destruction. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and the case was set for trial.

[¶8] The State listed Sweetwater Technology as a witness in its pretrial memorandum. It noted the witness would testify about managing Hager Industries’ WiFi network as well as records for MAC addresses that accessed the WiFi network “on the night of the burglary and when [Mr. Blair] was working.” Mr. Blair moved to exclude this witness, reasoning: “testimony regarding the relationship between MAC addresses and the Wi-Fi network would require the witness to express an opinion regarding whether the specific MAC address in question connected to the network at specific times[,]” testimony of this technical nature would require expert testimony, and the witness had not been designated as an expert. The State filed a response clarifying that it did not intend to present testimony about how MAC addresses appear in WiFi connection records. Nor did it intend to ask for an opinion on “whose phone connected or how it connected[.]” Rather, the State intended to introduce WiFi connection records under the business records exception to the hearsay rule, which required no expert. Following a hearing, the court took the matter under advisement for resolution at trial.

[¶9] At trial, Mr. Snody testified that he had worked for Sweetwater Technology for three years and, in his capacity as senior engineer, he managed Hager Industries’ WiFi network. Mr. Snody believed Sweetwater Technology set up the network for Hager Industries more

3 At 10:17 p.m. on the night of the burglary Mr. Blair sent his girlfriend a text message informing her that he needed to go to Hager Industries to pick up more Tyvek suits for work the following day. However, Tyvek suits had already been delivered to Mr. Blair’s worksite that afternoon and Mr. Blair did not have permission to go to Hager Industries after hours. In an interview with police after the burglary, Mr. Blair claimed he never went to Hager Industries on October 17 and insisted there was no reason his phone would have connected to the WiFi that night.

On searching Mr. Blair’s home, police found $2,000 in $100 bills in a safe in his bedroom and a dirt bike in the living room. Mr. Blair bought the dirt bike shortly after the burglary for $3,500 in cash. He told his roommate he borrowed money from his boss to buy the bike. However, Mr. Hager denied Mr. Blair’s request for a cash advance the week prior to the burglary. Finally, a DNA swab from the broken window “demonstrated the presence of a mixture from which Jonathon Blair [] and additional individuals [could not] be[] excluded as possible contributors.”

2 than three years prior. He explained that the router brand for the network was Cisco Meraki; he and his technicians could remotely manage the network from a password- protected website they referred to as the “Meraki dashboard”; and no one from Hager Industries could access the website.

[¶10] Using a demonstrative exhibit consisting of screenshots of the website, Mr. Snody explained, step by step, how he navigated the website and what type of information he could find on it.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2022 WY 121, 517 P.3d 597, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jonathon-tyson-blair-v-the-state-of-wyoming-wyo-2022.