Evidence presented during day 2 of Joseph Alvarez murder trial
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The second day of the murder trial of Joseph Alvarez wrapped up Tuesday afternoon.
Alvarez is accused of killing Georgette Kaufmann, a Texas assistant attorney general, in her garage when she came home from work, and seriously wounding her husband, Daniel Kaufmann.
In day 2 of the trial, it was revealed how the El Paso Police department used a geofence warrant that centered around the scene of the murder, at the time it happened in order to arrest Alvarez after many months with no leads.
Sean Macmanus, an FBI special agent in Las Cruces, testified Tuesday about that method.
The El Paso Police search warrant sent to Google, which allowed detectives to pull the location of all the phones linked to Google accounts within the geofence, using cell tower, wifi router, and gps data.
Police eventually honed in on an account linked to Alvarez leading them to discover an anti-semitic email manifesto that was sent to various military and army email accounts.
That email, titled, "Judgment day," detailed Alvarez's beliefs that Memorial Park was the place where Satanic abortion rituals were taking place.
It also revealed that Alvarez believed the 4 houses closest to the park were under a "generational curse."
A house on Copper Street, where Georgette Kaufmann and her husband lived, was amongst these houses.
21 photos of Memorial Park, as well as a picture of the Kaufmann residence, were attached to the email.
The defense argues Alvarez is mentally ill, but prosecutors believe he was motivated by "radical political beliefs."
Alvarez’s dislike for President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party were also outlined in his “judgment day” email.
The geofence warrant was also used to track alvarez from the crime scene to his home and workplace.
The defense objected to the state using the evidence from the geofence warrant in the trial, stating there was no probable cause for the data to be obtained in the first place, but Judge Alyssa Perez overruled the objection.
Count on ABC-7 to bring continued complete coverage on the trial.
