INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

FBI Agrees To Hack iPhone In Arkansas Murder Case

By Jayce Wagner
Published on: 04:37 PST, Mar 31, 2016

After dropping the lawsuit against Apple as a result of finding a way around the iOS encryption, the FBI will be helping at least one other law enforcement agency by unlocking an encrypted iPhone for an Arkansas prosecutor.

The move comes just days after the FBI announced that it has, allegedly with the help of an Israeli security firm, unlocked the San Bernardino iPhone without help from Apple. The initial controversy surrounding the FBI’s request for Apple to build a backdoor into the San Bernardino iPhone stemmed from the idea that such a backdoor could be used more than once, and it most certainly would be.

The FBI announced today that it will be using what it learned from unlocking the San Bernardino iPhone in order to help another law enforcement agency, this time a prosecutor in Arkansas, beginning what some commentators are saying is a scary trend for consumer privacy.

In Faulkner County, Arkansas, prosecutor Cody Hiland stated today that the FBI agreed to a request by the County Prosecutor’s office to unlock an iPhone owned by an 18-year-old who is currently on trial for murder.

The Arkansas iPhone belonged to one Hunter Drexler, an 18-year-old who is accused of killing Robert and Patricia Cogdell, a couple who lived in Conway, Arkansas. Authorities allege that Drexler, the owner of the Arkansas iPhone, killed the couple with the help of his friend 15-year-old Justin Staton last July. On Tuesday, an Arkansas judge presiding over the Drexler-Staton case agreed to postpone the trial until June 27 after the prosecuting attorney requested aid from the FBI in unlocking the suspect’s iPhone.

County Prosecutor Cody Hiland declined to comment on the case when speaking with NBC News, stating simply that he appreciated the FBI’s help but would not speculate on the contents of the suspect’s iPhone. Additionally, it’s unclear whether or not the iPhone in question is the same model of that used by Syed Farook, the San Bernardino shooter.

“We always appreciate their cooperation and willingness to help their local law enforcement partners,” said county prosecutor Cody Hiland today speaking with NBC News.

Hunter Drexler’s defense attorney dismissed the iPhone as a non-essential part of the case, stating that the iPhone in question does not contain anything of concern to investigators.

“We’re not concerned about anything on that iPhone,” said Patrick Benca, the defense attorney representing Hunter Drexler.

Investigators in the capital murder case say otherwise. Prosecutors speculate that the iPhone likely contains recorded conversations between Drexler and Staton, which include the two suspects allegedly planned the murders of Robert and Patricia Cogdell. Prosecutors claim that the iPhone and the suspect’s iPod were used by the suspects to communicate their plans leading up to the eventual murder of the 66-year-old couple from Conway, Arkansas.

The two teens entered pleas of not guilty into the Arkansas court shortly after their arrest in the shooting deaths of the elderly Cogdell couple. Prosecutors claim the murders were part of an aggravated robbery.

Court documents, according to TechCrunch, discuss the items prosecutors expect to find on the iPhone, including 10 pages of emails between the two suspects, a letter to Snapchat, and over 100 pages of Facebook records, which prosecutors claim contain important evidence in the capital murder case.

Just this week, as the Inquisitr reported, the FBI announced that it had broken into the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone without Apple’s aid, dropping the contentious lawsuit against the Cupertino company and leading many to speculate on what the potential fallout might be now that the FBI can unlock iPhones encrypted by the latest version of Apple’s iOS.

[Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images]

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