EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – The trial for Joseph Angel Alvarez, accused of killing a prominent El Paso attorney, continued for the second day with testimony describing how Alvarez was connected to the case through his phone.
Alvarez is on trial for one count of murder and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in 2020.
He is accused of killing local attorney Georgette Kaufmann and shooting her husband Daniel in their home on Nov. 14, 2020.
On the second day of the trial the prosecution called a detective to testify.
The detective said Alvarez was arrested in September 2021, almost a year after the incident.
The detective explained that the investigation into Alvarez’s connection to the murder included gathering information from his cell phone and social media accounts as well as interviews with past employers and co-workers.
Alvarez’s defense attorney presented the detective with a photocopy of a lengthy email titled under “Judgment Day” that was sent to the Army’s 902D Military Intelligence group, as KTSM previously reported.
The email was sent from a Gmail account under the name of Russell Shackleford and was signed with “respectfully yours, Joseph,” according to the testimony.
As KTSM previously reported, the email is a 22-page manifesto claiming “pro-choice” individuals were the “Jewish Satanist Party,” according to El Paso Police affidavit.
The manifesto also identifies Memorial Park as a supposed “ritualistic satanic ground to conduct abortions by manner of magic,” according to KTSM’s previous reports.
Alvarez’s defense attorney continued questioning the detective about the contents of the email, asking whether the email identified Memorial Park as a place where “satanic baby sacrifices” take place.
The detective confirmed this was identified in the email, that it also included several photographs of trees and benches at Memorial Park.
According to defense attorney’s interpretation of the email the trees represent “aborted babies that were planted in that park and sprouted” and the benches are used as altars for sacrifice.
The next witness was Las Cruces FBI Special Agent Sean MacManus who is a part of the Cellular Analysis Survey Team (CAST) that specializes in retrieving records to find locations of devices at a certain time.
While being questioned by the prosecution, MacManus explained the process of retrieving geo-location from what is believed to be Alvarez’s phone from around the time of the murder.
MacManus explained the FBI requested records from Google and after analyzing several devices that FBI believed to be potentially connected to the murder, he said, they were able to trace down a device that showed a change of locations on Nov. 14, 2020, from the area of Alvarez’s residence to the area of Kaufmann’s residence on Copper Street, near Memorial Park, around the time of the murder.
Upon further review, McManus said the device showing those locations was linked to a Google account under the name of Russell Shackleford, that investigators believe is associated with Alvarez.
KTSM will update as the second day of trial progresses.
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