Marvin Nicholson Trial: FBI Tracks Him With Cellphone Records

WDEF News 12's Bill Mitchell joins us live from the courts building with the latest in our top local story.

e going on with the jury out of the room today then when they returned.

District Attorney General Bill Cox and his staff thought for a while they were going to lose a big part of their evidence, because of a technicality with an FBI Agent's testimony..but they didn't.

Most of the morning was spent arguing the admissibility of evidence from FBI expert Bill Shute...who studied the layout of cell towers and the location of calls made on Marvin Nicholson's cell phone of the day of the murder of James Citizen. That was October 3rd of 2006. But when Shute arrived in Chattanooga this week he found that one cell tower was oriented differently than he had been told. Since the defense was not given that information...Judge Barry Steelman refused to admit the Shute's final report as evidence. The agent was still able to place Nicholson's cell phone in Birchwood around the time Citizen was shot five times and killed in a wooded area off Sims-Harris Road.

SOT---BILL SHUTE, FBI SPECIALIST in: 01:35:17 "what I have written here on the slide is that at 12:01 Nicholson's cell phone moved in a northeasterly direction ...Singlular reported his cell phone as being at cell site 50933..which which is displayed in the highlighted area."

Defense attorney Johnny Houston is trying to show the jury that the killer could have been someone else..not Nicholson. Prosecutors say the 15 year old Citizen was killed because Nicholson thought he had burlglarized his apartment.

Neighborhood resident Eddie Eubanks testified that he saw the youth abducted.

SOT---EDDIE EUBANKS,Jr. EYEWITNESS IN: 26:04 "the young boy was standing on this side of the car, and the man standing on the right side of the car..of..he came around to where the boy was standing and had a gun in his hand."

In later testimony, Eubanks said, tho, he wasn't sure that man was nicholson.

Police Lieutenant Edwin McPherson later arrested Nicholson at his home .

SOT--LT. EDWIN MCPHERSON, CHATTANOOGA POLICE DEPT. IN:57:26 "he looked at me and dropped his head..and said I know what you'all are here..and I said excuse me?..would you repeat yourself?"

Prosecutors yesterday introduced two other witnesses who put Nicholson at the scene of the abduction....or at Sims-Harris Road where the body was found.