A woman and her boyfriend were convicted of murder in the August 2014 death of the woman’s husband -- and prosecutors say cellphone records helped them close the case.
Larlane Pannell-Brown, 70, and Hussain Ali Zaheh, 50, were convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Cecil Brown, the husband of Pannell-Brown.
Brown, 73, was found bludgeoned to death at the rear of his home.
Authorities said modern-day technology was the downfall of the woman and her lover. A chart of cellphone locations was used to illustrate Zaheh’s movements on the day of the murder and unraveled his alibis that put him elsewhere.
"The geographic location of Zadeh was circumstantial evidence that tied him to the murder location, but it also proved that he was lying," said State Attorney John McCarthy.
Montgomery County and Takoma Park investigators enlisted the help of the FBI when they came upon a veritable gold mine of evidence on the cellphones of Zadeh and Pannell-Brown. When Pannell-Brown called police, they soon began questioning her.
After scouring her cellphone records, they found calls and texts to Zadeh, described as intimate, racy exchanges between two people who had each told investigators that they hardly knew each other.
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Pannell-Brown’s web search history also uncovered topic questions on "What happens if you get Tasered [sic] in the head?" and "What drinks cause heart failure?"
"She was doing Google searches and online searches about how to poison people, and what would happen if you used a stun gun and stunned someone in his sleep?" said McCarthy. “These are not the kind of searches law abiding citizens conduct."
Prosecutors said there were messages showing Pannell-Brown directing Zadeh through the home she shared with her husband, so he could kill him.
"This is one of the first cases I had where a cellphone and the information from the cellphone is what helped me the most," McCarthy said.
Before the killing, Brown and Pannell-Brown had a 50-year relationship, McCarthy said. They had been married since 1992.
The two are scheduled to be sentenced on July 25. The maximum sentence for a second-degree murder charge is 30 years.
