The Case & Investigation

​K. 'Gus' Dimitrelos, CIS

Active Top Secret Clearance, SCI, (SI/G)

OUR EXPERT

State of Florida vs Kevin Watkins

Case Background
I examined trial exhibits and testimony presented in the case of State of Florida vs. Kevin Watkins. Specifically, I examined the trial exhibit #1 titled, "(A) EMAIL FROM HOLLY TO KEVIN" which is a printed document presented as a valid electronic mail supposedly sent to and from Mr. Kevin Watkins' email account. 

Based on my 16 years experience as a certified computer forensics specialist and special agent with the US Secret Service, I was requested by Attorney William Kent to examine all the evidence in this case and to conduct a complete and unrestricted examination of the computer system belonging to Mr. Kevin Watkins.  

Specifically, I examined the computer system belonging to and used by Mr. Watkins to send and receive email and verified that in fact, this computer systems contained email communications to/from Mr. Watkins email account of and containing the email account belonging to Mr. Watkins at watkins68******. I imaged the original hard drive and have preserved the image duplicate. The HASH value of the evidence image is:
SHA1 9c3dd23ba2cebacab0294cf44cbdeb6599741a23. 

Evidence Related to Possible Motive
The analysis of the Watkins computer system revealed a deleted document detailing anger towards Mr. Watkins. The document, which was created by the user account Holly and authored by Holly Watkins, was created on or about December 30, 2003, and deleted on or before December 5, 2007.

​The verbiage in the document I discovered was similar to the verbiage in the printed document, which had been incorrectly presented into evidence as an electronic communication to Mr. Watkins. However, a distinct difference in the found document (below) is that at no time are there any cited allegations of inappropriate or illegal behavior by Mr. Watkins.

The found document was stored in two locations prior to deletion and the last time it was accessed was on December 5, 2007 in the following location //Backup 8-00/New Backup Job/F/Documents and Settings/Holly/My Documents/12-30-03.doc 12/5/2007 1:47:41 PM (2007-12-05 19:47:41 UTC).

​The content I discovered which was authored by Holly Watkins on December 30, 2003, is pasted below exactly as written:

I cant think of everything that I wanted to sa now. I was just lying there fully awake with so much shit on my mind that I thought I needed to write it all down and now I have forgot most of the shit. I hate that. All I can remember now is that of course it was about Man and my dad and this whole situation that is going on . The two most important males in my life FINALLY able to have conversation. I knew all these years that that would get along. Why have I been so afraid.? Shit is crazy. Daddy doesn’t realize that I am not this stupid dumb girl who would fuck any and everything. I stopped that shit when I fell in love with Man five years ago. Yeah I have done some dirt since then but then again we weren’t together then either. I finally have MY chance to be with him and its here and I’ll be damned if anyone is going to stop me this time. Why does my dad always try to stop my relationships. I know he wants the best and all that but you would think by now ican rule some part of my own god damn life. Shit just gets so ridiculous sometimes you know. And he know he aint right nor the shit that I do. There isnnt anyone who is going to steal me away come on I’m his fucking daughter and not anything else. Maybe in the month or so when he sees how happy I am and how good I’m doing in school then he will realize that I know just ofr once what the fuck I am doing. I have held onto this boy for so long that sometimes it just hurts. I have felt the pain and sadness without even having a reall relationship with this fool. Maybe finally now that we do have a real relationship everything will be the best cause I have already felt the heartbreak and heartache. Shit from here on out life should be good. The Danny, lil Freddie, and Rick episodes were all relationships I used just to look past Man and all his shit. And in each of the relationships his black ass would pop back up and so did those feelings. I know that’s why my relationship with Rick ended so fast. That’s also my reason for falling in love so fast as to what my dad claims to think. Yeah I fell in love fast with those relationshipps because I wanted to be blinded. I to be blinded so I didn’t have to think about what Man was doing or who he was with because I had my own to attend to. I never want to hear that I fall in love to fast because you can fall out of love just as quick as you can fall in love. Rick proved that to me too. Hell he was talking that I love you bullshit way before I was. I may have been in love with Man at one point but now I have learned to just love him because that’s all I could keep to have faith in our relationship. See people, people who know of our relationship and don’t know him don’t understand just how we work. Its shit that I really can’t explain. We have never gotten into any fights or argued even when doing shit as simple as going to the movies. I mean people even fight about petty shit like that. We have never done that. He’s never raised his voice at me and I have never done that to him and we can never stay mad at each other. Even when I haven’t heard from him in a good long while and he just pops back into my life, like, now, I aint mad. I just glad that he’s back in my life and its like we never missed a beat. I just wish now that my dad would see that its not about cars money, looks, or any of that because I know Man don’t got any of that shit. He’s just who he is and that ‘s why I love him. I may be fat, a goodie, smart, but he accepts me for me. He doesn’t want me to lose weight and when I told him that’s what I was going to he told me to do everthough I didn’t have to and I should ONLY do it if I wanted to and not for anyone else. Most of my life my dad has made fun of me for being too fat and has done it to my mom. What kind of shit is that? Why can YOU just accept it. I am sorry that I am not the perfect daughter, that can’t be slim and trim and fit and run a fucking marathon and just through hoops but I got some stamina and I work with what I got. At least some loves me even when I am like this. My mind should be a lot more fucked up than what it really is. Looks at my aunt, my uncle and tell me how the hell are we related sometimes. Sometimes I look at Melanie and I feel sick you know. I can she live with herself and then I think I am proud of her for living this long. Cause in so many ways she should have been dead, locked up or in a fucking crazy house. Charlie is just a whole other story. It’s just fucking sad that my family is like this. Maybe the only thing I got from my real father was some damn sanity cause damn. But if anyone ever tells me I am crazy I can just say look at my family, cases closed. But anyway back to this other shit. My dad is always talking and “telling” every one “oh yeah she can have a boyfriend” but I guess its just one that he gets to chose right? Look at Rick he probably actually hurt me out of Danny and Lil Freddie. I mean come one both of them fools were pieces of shit and the one my dad actually picks turns out to be one too. The one that even he didn’t expect to shit on me did. The first two he didn’t and doesn’t like and Rick broke my heart. Now: here’s Man, the only have had my life set on hold for the past 5 years, we get along perfectly, I am happy, he actually likes him so far, we don’t fight, my first love, and he finally wants to be with me but yet? He wants me to have a boyfriend that he can pick like Rick. I am sorry to say that it doesn’t work that way. Even my dad knew that I like d Rick for that truck (at first) and then when I get hurt he wants to make things better. Well now I can say, you know what you can’t fix this one this time cause you are going to be the one hurt. It maybe too early to say some of this and I can only pray for that. He’ll like him even more and I know that, somethings got to give. I love my dad to death and all my heart but he’s got to know he’s not the only man in my life that wants the best for me wants me to do good in life but can also give me some thing that my dad can’t give.

Editor's Note: To compare the "fraudulent email" submitted into court as evidence for the plaintiff, to the documents above (discovered by Mr. Dimitrelos on Kevin Watkin's home computer), click the button below. The "fraudulent email" is public record.

FRAUDULENT EMAIL

​Technical Capabilities

In addition to the document 12-3-03.doc which was created on the computer system by Holly Watkins, there is evidence Holly Watkins had unabated access to the computer system in order to effect data changes or gain access to Mr. Watkins email account in order to send or receive his personal email or to create fake email-like documents  This would include the direct ability to fabricate message content or copy Mr. Watkins email information in order to copy and paste it into any fake or drafted document which would resemble the electronic communication presented in printed form in court.  Any printed documentation presented in any hearing or trial without the electronic evidence to verify it should be considered as invalid, forensically unsound, or fake and should have never been presented in court. Below is an example of how printed data can be easily manipulated.

Example 1: Morphing two photographs to produce a single printed photograph using free and easy to use software could easily be used to convict a person of child pornography production with now methods to challenge the printed photograph.

Testimony In Support Holly Watkins Technical Capabilities

Holly Watkins testified that she set up Kevin Watkins' EMail account and never recalled emailing Kevin Watkins from her EMail account.  A forensics examination of Mr. Watkins computer system revealed that she [Holly] never emailed Kevin Watkins which supports my expert opinion that the printed document which was represented as an electronic mail to Kevin Watkins was in fact fake and Kevin Watkins was set-up due to motives which reflect Holly's anger toward her father, not for any sexual abuse, but rather because of Mr. Watkins attempts to get her to live her life to the best of her ability. Below is her admittance to her technical capabilities and her admission that she never recalls emailing Kevin Watkins.

15:30:50  5       Q    Did she make you e-mail him?
15:30:52  6       A    No.
15:30:52  7       Q    Did she write this e-mail?
15:30:54  8       A    No.
15:30:54  9       Q    Was she with you when you sent this e-mail?
15:30:56 10       A    No.
15:30:56 11       Q    Was anybody with you when you sent this
15:30:58 12  e-mail?
15:30:58 13       A    No.
15:30:58 14       Q    How did you have his e-mail address?
15:31:02 15       A    Because I helped set up the e-mail account
15:31:04 16  for him.
15:31:04 17       Q    When is the last time you e-mailed him to
15:31:08 18  that account?
15:31:08 19       A    I don't even remember.
15:31:10 20       Q    Did y'all talk by e-mail all the time?
15:31:12 21       A    No.
15:31:14 22       Q    In the last year?
15:31:14 23       A    No.

Forensics Examination of Kevin Watkins' Computer

The examination of Mr. Watkins computer system revealed he routinely used his computer for emailing his friends and family and used the computer to search the internet.  The activity on the computer revealed Mr. Watkins never searched for internet pornography of any type and had no addiction or interest with any freely available and accessible adult or child pornography on the World Wide Web.  

During the period of February to June 2012, I conducted my forensics analysis and did not limit my searches and examined over 200,000 data artifacts in the entire allocated and unallocated areas of the hard drive. I spent more than 82 hours in my examination of data on this computer system even though I agreed to 10 hours of paid services and am not expecting any further payments from Kevin Watkins' mother Shirley.

During my analysis, I discovered the administrator account of Holly. I located evidence which revealed the account user, Holly Watkins, accessed Kevin Watkins' personal folders including his Pictures folder, and also contained data such as link files with the file name containing DaTzRiTe. This is relevant due to the fact that this name is similar to the alleged email user account name of datzrite2boiz.  

However, not a single email to or from the account of datzrite2boiz***** or any other derivative of that email account name exists on this computer.  Absolutely no evidence related to the datzrite2boiz***** or any of the data cited in Court Exhibit 1 exists on this computer.  Additionally, since Kevin Watkins was utilizing Microsoft Outlook to synchronize his watkins68***** account, any and all email sent or received from this computer or any other computers would have synced with his Outlook account on this computer.  In other words, even though there Kevin Watkins did not use or possess any other computer systems, if Court Exhibit 1 was a real email, evidence of it should exist on this computer system.

Furthermore, Kevin Watkins' computer system contained more than one thousand emails which were sent or received from the computer and his watkins68***** email name exists more than 6,000 times which supports his frequent and consistent use of this computer and email account name.  It is my expert opinion any email communication which is related to the alleged email-like printed document identified as Court Exhibit 1 must have originated from this computer or received by this computer.  It is also my expert opinion that if any evidence related to Court Exhibit 1 was deleted from this computer, I would have been able to recover it or confirm it was deleted.  Finally, a Bit-for-Bit search of any evidence or data fragments related to Court Exhibit 1 was conducted and absolutely no evidence was located.  

Expert Conclusion
I currently perform more than 90 percent of my forensics examinations for Federal and State prosecutors and law enforcement. This is the first time I have reviewed evidence in an appeal case which revealed innocence.  I examined 100% of the evidence in this case and concluded that even in the hypothetical event that additional computer evidence existed; I would have discovered email evidence related to Court Exhibit 1 or any other evidence during my analysis. It is my expert opinion Mr. Kevin Watkins did not produce or respond to any email from datzrite***** and the printed document presented in court is fraudulent. There is no doubt in my 16 years of examining digital evidence, Mr. Kevin Watkins did not commit the crimes he was convicted of and this is the first time I have ever examined computer evidence and discovered innocence.