PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — On Monday, jurors viewed the digital footprint of three defendants on the night Philadelphia Police Sgt. Richard Mendez was shot and killed in a parking garage at Philadelphia International Airport.
During testimony, a homicide detective laid out the connections between all the defendants through their cellphones and said they were pinged at the airport garage on Oct. 12, 2023, as well as at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where they dropped off Jesús Madera-Durán, who was killed during the confrontation with Mendez and his partner.
Investigators testified phone records also linked them to a warehouse in Cranbury, New Jersey, where the stolen Dodge Durango they drove was burned.
The detective testified that social media records also show the suspects on the highway the night of the murder, and played a video in court from Yobranny Martinez-Fernandez’s Instagram live stream. They alleged he briefly showed a gun in the video.
Investigators also said records showed Martinez-Fernandez shared a news article about the shooting hours later through Instagram messages.
Martinez-Fernandez and Hendrick Peña-Fernandez are facing murder, robbery and other related charges.
The third defendant, Alexander Batista-Polanco, pleaded guilty to a lesser third-degree murder charge.
The trial is expected to conclude this week.