home | Detective Sprague Fakes Timestamps



At Love's trial in January, 2019, Athaide claimed he spent at least 19 hours at The Lofts apartments, finding and making video clips. Love's lawyer Nielsen asked Athaide how long he spent making clips. I thought Nielsen was suggesting Athaide spent a lot of time tampering with the clips. But Athaide's answer, and other events, make me think Nielsen was implying that Athaide didn't spend enough time, and left out a lot of clips of Love around the building.

Athaide claimed he used a piece of software called Epiphan which does a screen grab of video playing on the Lofts security system. Whether it hooks into the video cable, I don't know. But that is the idea, it just records what is playing on the screen of another system. Athaide says he then left with 20 clips, plus a hard drive where he just copied over all the raw video. Smolarek would later mention in a deposition this hard drive was lost at some point, perhaps when Mandi's attorneys asked to see it. Lofts manager Michelle Ervin told me on the phone in December 2018 that she didn't have the video because police took it.

Athaide said he never took the security system from the Lofts, but he was somehow able to review the video on the hard drive at the police station and also screen-record new clips off it using the Epiphan two years later. I guess he reproduced the Lofts security system, or made his own system, to play from the hard drive and display the times for the Epiphan to record. Prosecutor Stone played those new clips at trial, but hid their existence from the defense.

Athaide claims the Epiphan captured the timestamps and labels which the Lofts security system put at the top of the video , and there is no way he could stop that. The new video clips they made two years later also showed some additional detail around the video, like the brand of the video system playing the clip. The new clips were never provided to me, and I forget the brand I saw at trial, something like "OmniVue" or something.

The state originally provided 18 clips to the defense, with all of the times, labels, and other surrounding detail removed. The state also provided to me eight hand-typed files claiming to note the time of each clip. Some of these files contained screen grabs of the video with the time and label on top.

If you are already lost, I have 10 more pages to go.
This is an example of a hand-typed file that noted the video timestamps. There were Word docs, pdf, powerpoint.

Some of the hand-typed files had cropped screen grabs of video frames. Some were tight crops with only a little image. Some of the cropped images included a piece of the time and location label like this one. But the image is cropped on the left, right, and bottom.
This is one of the folders provided to me by the state, containing the 18 original clips provided to the defense with no timestamps.
1.avi created and modified 12/21/16 7:45 AM.

It shows Mulrenin driving into his parking garage. Presumably this is him getting home from work. It is one of the places where you can compare gate swipes to claimed video times, and see video time claimed by police is seven minutes later.

CLICK IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD VIDEO

RIGHT-CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW AND ZOOM
2.avi created and modified 12/21/16 7:50 AM.

It shows Mulrenin walking out into the street on the phone with Mandi. This would be after he parked on the second floor and walked down the ramp. Mandi probably is saying she stopped at Chris Dahl's house to get his cocaine, and she is coming to get money for her dancer dollars. You can compare this to Mulrenin's phone record provided by AT&T, and see the video time claimed by police is seven minutes later. I believe in the 20 clips shown at trial, this turned out to actually be two clips with time in between, edited together as one.
3.avi created and modified 12/21/16 7:55 AM.

This shows Mulrenin walking back into the first floor garage, and swiping into the hallway behind the service elevator next to the garage. Some of the video clip times are rearranged. But this is one of the clips you have to accept is in the correct order and not misleading. Notice he is a fast walking and sort of aggressive-moving person. Like I said, I saw him run full-speed across the club.
4.avi created and modified 12/21/16 8:00 AM.

Mulrenin gets onto the service elevator to go up to his apartment. He punches the button 8 times even after the door is closing, like he is blind or angry. I think he is looking at a list, written by a female, of the eight girls who are owed "Doll House Dollars" from day 1 photo 47.
5.avi created and modified 12/21/16 8:04 AM.

Mulrenin gets back on the elevator from the fifth floor presumably to go down and meet Mandi at the curb. He is now carrying what appears in later photos to be vodka and something orange in a plastic party cup. He is either a compulsive alcoholic who can't go five minutes without drinking or, more likely, he wants to appear inviting when he meets Mandi. Like "Come have a drink." You can't bring cocaine and a mirror to the curb. For girls who like alcohol this works just as good.
6.avi created and modified AFTER A LONG TIME at 12/21/16 8:46 AM.

Starting with this clip, the sequence took an unusually long time to create.

Mulrenin walks out to the curb from the other side of the service elevator. The way he kicks the trash and almost runs into the wall, he is some combination of blind, drunk, and angry. I would also guess he is left-handed.
7.avi created and modified 12/21/16 8:48 AM.

THIS IS THE FIRST CLIP THAT IS OUT OF ORDER. THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED AROUND 6:15 AM.


Scott walks in behind a dog walker who swiped open the freight door. But the existence of the dog walker was hidden for two years, until Athaide accidentally showed him in the new 20 clips. All the police reports said stuff like the freight door was "left ajar" or had a "non-functioning latch."

If Mandi really wanted Scott to go in ahead of her, she would not have called Mulrenin out to the curb until Scott was inside. And Scott would probably have a plan how to get in, not try a door that will never work, and only get lucky that a dog walker happens to pass by.
8.avi created and modified 12/21/16 9:04 AM.

Mulrenin meets Mandi at the curb before walking around and getting in the passenger seat. Mandi is parked perpendicular to the garage entrance like she does not expect to drive in. She will have to do a partial U turn to enter.
Let's pause here to look at something. You will see there is a dot in 7.avi of Scott, but not in 6.avi and 8.avi of Mulrenin.

What is that dot? It is most likely a cigarette. I staked out the Lofts, and I saw people who walk their dogs, and go in and out around 6 AM, throw a lot of cigarettes on the ground.

How did I know to look for something different in the video of Scott? That is a long answer which I will get to later when I show you the dog walker. But it is based on:

1) Right off when I first saw this video, Scott going in ahead of Mandi made no sense based on what I knew happened and what I know about Mandi. And then you see how much labor police spent to hide the timestamps, and the parts that were missing, it was extremely sketchy.

2) Suspecting the video was out of order caused me to look really close. I ultimately discovered there was a dog walker painstakingly edited out of the clip of Mulrenin and Mandi in the garage. And also a dog walker police took great pains to edit out and not mention, who let Love in the freight door.

3) Plus, given whatever happened in Mulrenin's apartment took only a few minutes based on the blood and witnesses and it not being ransacked, there was no explanation for where Love could have been for the next hour and a half if he really arrived at this time.



9.avi created and modified 12/21/16 9:15 AM.

This shows Scott getting onto the freight elevator and going up to the fifth floor.

9.avi was created after 10.avi, because the clips of Scott were reordered to fit into the clips of Mandi and Mulrenin. So you have to lay down the clips of Mandi and Mulrenin first, to know where to put Scott.
10.avi created and modified 12/21/16 9:09 AM.

This shows Mandi swiping into the garage with Mulrenin holding a drink in her passenger seat. You can also see something white in the cupholder on the passenger side of the dashboard. You will see this again when she drives out of the garage.
11.avi created and modified 12/21/16 9:33 AM.

Notice how the clips are coming out slow now at 9:33 AM. Somebody is putting in the work to fake a story of coordination between Love and Jackson.

This shows Mandi driving into the fifth floor garage at a high rate of speed. If she were coordinating with Scott, she would drive slowly, or ask Mulrenin to go to the store or something, to give Scott time to do whatever he is going to do.

We also don't really know if this is the fifth floor or what corner. Sprague and Athaide and Michelle Ervin the Lofts manager, made conflicting and spurious statements.
12.avi created and modified 12/21/16 9:41 AM.

Scott supposedly being discreet on the freight elevator on the southwest corner. He supposedly waits on the fifth floor without going anywhere.

Sprague and Athaide claim Love is texting Jackson as Mulrenin and Jackson pass by outside the elevator.

Michelle Ervin and the video labels, seem to show Jackson and Mulrenin are actually at the opposite northeast corner of the building.

I am quite certain this clip is out of order and actually takes place much later. And Love does not have a phone. Love may have been hiding from Jackson and Mulrenin, but when they come into the garage around 6:17.
13.avi created and modified 12/21/16 9:43 AM.

Jackson and Mulrenin enter the hallway from the garage. Sprague wants you to think Love is hiding in the elevator as this happens. But Love is actually in the elevator much later, and in a different place, according to the labels and Lofts manager Ervin.
14.avi created and modified 12/21/16 9:49 AM.

This is the video where Love props open the self-locking door, and looks for and finds Jackson's car in the garage. He then paces around in the open looking like he has no plan or clue.

I think this is actually in the correct order, and takes place before he walks in behind the dog walker and waits in the elevator.

In this clip, one of the original 18 provide to the defense, Love is not actually seen propping open the door to get back in the building. It was very strange for police to lose video of their murder suspect propping open a door to enter the murder scene!

My best theory is Sprague was trying to put together some video to make it look like Love left with Jackson. Police provided video of Jackson leaving alone. Police provided no video of Love leaving. My theory is Sprague wanted to use the missing part of this clip where Love enters the garage, to pair with Jackson entering the garage when she leaves, to make it look like they left together.
15.avi created and modified 12/21/16 9:52 AM.

This is the clip where Jackson and Mulrenin make a trip to the garage, that Sprague kept changing the time and description of.

Notice the part where Jackson enters ahead of Mulrenin is missing. Sprague wanted to create some kind of story of Jackson letting Love into the apartment while Mulrenin was in the garage, or who knows what his scheme was.

In the 20 new clips two years later that prosecutor Stone tried to hide from the defense, this turned out to be two clips edited together, that actually had time in between them. When Sprague was showing Neisha clips at her video interview on December 28, 2016, you can see a dog walker cross the scene left before they enter, and then right before they leave. Neisha said "I've never seen this" and Sprague said "I didn't show it to anyone yet."

This probably actually took place around 6:19, when Love actually came in behind the dog walker. That is when Love actually came and knocked. And that is why Sprague hypothesized Jackson leaving the apartment was somehow associated with Love entering.

Was Jackson wearing a jacket when she entered the garage? If so, was she coming from the apartment? Or was the apartment at the opposite corner as Ervin claimed, and maybe she was coming from Mulrenin's car on the second floor? I think she put on Love's jacket from her car because she was cold. But if you believe Michelle Ervin, they may be coming from Mulrenin's apartment on the opposite corner, when Jackson is first seen in the jacket. If you believe Love, that was Mulrenin's jacket, with his wallet accidentally in the pocket.
16.avi created and modified 12/21/16 9:58 AM.

This shows Jackson running out by herself still wearing the man's jacket. There is no video of Love leaving.

Jackson actually ran out at 6:36, before the 911 call came in at 6:37. But the video timestamps were seven minutes late. Athaide hid from the jury and defense that they were late, and probably purposely made them late for his claim that Jackson ransacked the apartment until the sirens came. Athaide also lied on the stand and said the 911 call came in at 6:30.

Police provided no video of murderer Love leaving the scene, because they couldn't bear to admit he did not leave with Jackson.

You can see a car leaving the parking garage as Jackson enters, that was parked across from hers. Police never provided the name of that witness.
17.avi created and modified 12/21/16 10:10 AM.

Jackson drives away from her parking spot.
18.avi created and modified 12/21/16 10:02 AM.

Jackson drives out of the garage. You can see the white thing in her passenger side dashboard cup holder. And you can see the black straps of her dress. But in her passenger seat is just empty tan leather. There is nobody sitting in it.
Here are those files police typed up and Sprague edited, telling the claimed times for the video clips.

Look for any mention of a dog walker who let Love in, or in the fifth floor garage. You won't find it.
"Athaides Notes.pdf" modified December 16, 2016 10:21:04 AM

"Lofts Video Review by Dean.docx" modified December 16, 2016 10:21:24 AM

"Lofts.docx" modified December 15, 2016 5:52:22 PM

"Lofts.docx" modified December 15, 2016 6:22:22 PM

"Lofts Powerpoint.pptx" modified December 21, 2016 12:27:34 PM

"Lofts Powerpoint.pptx" modified December 21, 2016, 12:57:34 PM

"Video Clips.docx" modified December 21, 2016 12:27:48 PM

"Video Clips.docx" modified December 21, 2016, 12:57:48 PM