A Google Maps location was used as a piece of evidence in the case of former Cisco engineer Brad Cooper’s murder trial.
Cooper recently pleaded guilty to second-degree murder charges in the 2008 killing of his wife, Nancy Cooper. First-degree murder charges were dropped last year.
According to Network World, Cooper will get 12 to 15 years in a North Carolina prison and he said he'll allow for the adoption of his two young daughters.
The case was created via circumstantial evidence along with a Google Maps search result that was found on his laptop.
It says that “(FBI) Special Agent (Greg) Johnson and Detective (Chris) Chappell testified that the temporary internet files recovered from the laptop indicated someone conducted a Google Map search on the laptop at approximately 1:15 p.m. on 11 July, (2008) the day before Ms. Cooper was murdered.”
“They concluded that this search was done by someone using the laptop while it was at the Cisco office where Defendant worked. The State’s experts testified that the Google Map search was initiated by someone who entered the zip code associated with Defendant’s house, and then moved the map and zoomed in on the exact spot on Fielding Drive where Ms. Cooper’s body was found.”
According to the News-Observer, Cooper had maintained for the past six years that he wasn’t guilty of first-degree murder.
“When we started this process years ago, I said I wished the person responsible for this crime would come forward and acknowledge guilt and own up to their behavior,” Garry Rentz, the father of Nancy Cooper, told the paper. “That’s happened today.”
Rentz added: “It acknowledges that he, in fact, did what what we all thought all along. We can close this chapter and mourn.”
He’s served the past five years in prison and will get credit for that time, meaning he could get out in as little as seven years.
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