Keith Crawford called Gary Bennett 14 times and sent him 11 text messages in the hours before his disappearance.
Crawford’s flurry of phone activity on Aug. 9 and the early morning hours of Aug. 10, 2014, stood in contrast to a seemingly abrupt end after he sent two final texts from an area near Spring Hill Mall. Phone record experts on Thursday said Crawford’s phone — after combining to initiate 215 calls and texts between Aug. 8 and 2:19 a.m. Aug. 10 — never made another outgoing call or message.
“There’s no activity on that phone,” said Steven Prosser, a U.S. Marshals inspector. “That phone appears to stop (moving) somewhere near the highway, (Interstate) 90.”
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Prosecutors used a trail of phone records to close out their case against Bennett in the 2014 slaying of Crawford, of Bartlett.
Bennett, charged with murder, has pleaded not guilty to the killing, which prosecutors allege took place inside an SUV driven by Joan Sebastian Vado-Bonilla after he, Bennett and Crawford left a party on Lathrop Lane in a rural portion of West Dundee. Bennett, who owed Crawford drug money, shot the Bartlett man in the head as the 2006 Chrysler Pacifica traveled south on Route 31, prosecutors said. Investigators later identified Crawford’s blood in the cushion of the front passenger seat.
Prosser and another analyst took the witness stand on the eighth day of Bennett’s trial to describe how cell towers put the three men together in the same area around the time anyone last saw Crawford at the party. The men were together in the general area of Lathrop at 2:12 a.m., based on cell tower records of texts and calls. Five minutes later, Bennett made a phone call that indicated it was moving south. Crawford’s final texts were sent within two minutes of that call and were the last outgoing actions taken on the phone, Prosser testified. He added that Crawford’s and Bennett’s phones connected to towers near one another around that time, indicating “simultaneous travel.”
“All three devices traveled from north to south on Route 31,” Prosser said.
Bennett, in a video-recorded statement to investigators, denied being at the party or even leaving his Algonquin home around the time Crawford disappeared. He claimed to be home passed out from a combination of cold medicine and marijuana.
In great detail, Prosser and Assistant State’s Attorney Vince Coyle showed jurors — through the cell tower hits — how Bennett’s and Vado-Bonilla’s phones moved along Interstate 90 and ended up on Route 25 heading toward a farm in the Valley View area where, according to Vado-Bonilla, Bennett wanted to dispose of Crawford’s body. The farm owner refused, which prompted Bennett and Vado-Bonilla to eventually put Crawford in a Dumpster at an Elgin apartment complex, according to Vado-Bonilla. The cell tower information put Vado-Bonilla and Bennett in the general area of the farm for nearly two hours.
Prosser explained that Crawford’s phone was picked up by a tower in the area of Route 25 and Interstate 90 later on Aug. 10, 2014, once because of an incoming text and at least one other time through date usage associated with apps which update automatically. The phone again popped up as being in that area on Aug. 14, 2014, because of data usage, which prompted Bennett’s attorney Stephen Richards to ask Prosser whether “dead men” can turn cellphones on or off.
Prosser reiterated that phones can transmit data, triggering cell towers, without user actions. Richards — who has suggested Crawford might not actually be dead and left the party with another man who could be responsible for the disappearance — questioned how Crawford’s phone could again use data after a few days of inactivity either because it had been turned off or had no power. He added that Bartlett police attempted to “ping” the device to locate it after a missing person report was filed but that the phone didn’t respond until Aug. 14.
Richards opened the defense case late Thursday afternoon and will continue to present witnesses on Bennett’s behalf on Friday.
Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.