What was recorded?
Whiffin’s cross-examination identifies an Apple Health interval from 12:31:56 to 12:32:16 a.m. on January 29, 2022, with 36 steps and an estimated distance discussed as about 84 feet. These timestamps label an activity interval; they do not identify a collision.
- 12:31:56–12:32:16 a.m.36 recorded steps; about 84 feet estimated in testimony.
- After about 12:32 a.m.No further overnight Apple Health activity recorded, according to Whiffin.
- Shortly after 6 a.m.Recorded Apple Health activity resumes.
Whiffin testified that his movement-logging tests showed delays averaging 15–50 seconds. We cannot subtract that range from John’s timestamps as though it were a correction measured for this particular interval. Nor does an activity gap establish complete physical stillness.
Does 84 feet rule out going into the house?
No. A route comparison depends on where the person starts, which entrance they use, and how completely the phone records movement. The 72-foot flagpole-to-door figure was put to Whiffin by counsel. He accepted a conditional comparison that could put the steps inside; that exchange did not independently verify the measurement. Doubling 72 feet to 144 feet describes one proposed out-and-back route.
Defense investigator John Tedman described different routes beginning near the mailbox at the driveway: 65 feet 9 inches to the main front door, 70 feet 1 inch to another front entrance, and 78 feet 3 inches to the pedestrian garage entrance. Those starting points matter. They are not measurements from the reported body location. Read the cross-examination context and route qualifications in E02.
The strongest challenge to our reading
Some location readings were too imprecise to distinguish the lawn from the house. Under cross-examination, Whiffin acknowledged that an accuracy area could encompass the house. That prevents us from treating a plotted point as an exact location.
The battery cooled overnight, but Whiffin’s freezer test produced a different cooling pattern. Battery temperature alone cannot locate the phone. The temperature record deserves its own examination, rather than being folded into the step count as proof of the same event.
Why we still give the sequence weight
We believe Karen Read struck John with her SUV. The final recorded steps, the long activity gap, and the overnight cooling are part of why we find an indoor assault followed by relocation less persuasive. Our reasoning depends on how much movement the phone captured; the phone record cannot establish that an alternative was physically impossible.
These are connected readings from one device, not three independent witnesses. To assess a collision, readers also need the vehicle evidence, injury findings, and competing reconstruction testimony. Read our full reasoning and the strongest objections.
Read was acquitted of the death-related charges and convicted of operating under the influence. The verdict remains part of the record.
