Thunder Bay

Cell phone records examined during day 7 of Hobbs Trial

The OPP pulled nearly 6,000 pages' worth of call and text data from phones owned by Keith and Marisa Hobbs, and Mary Voss, as part of its investigation into alleged extortion, court heard Tuesday.

OPP recovered thousands of pages' worth of call and text records during extortion investigation, court hears

Day seven of the extortion trial for former Thunder Bay mayor Keith Hobbs, his wife Marisa Hobbs, and city resident Mary Voss included testimony about phone and text records. (Amy Hadley/CBC)

The OPP pulled thousands of pages' worth of call and text data from phones owned by Keith and Marisa Hobbs, and Mary Voss, as part of its investigation into alleged extortion, court heard Tuesday.

Day seven of the extortion trial against the trio opened with testimony by OPP Operational and Intelligence Analyst Phil Wilkinson about extracting data from the phones after a warrant to do so was obtained by OPP in March 2017.

The data extracted was pertaining to calls and texts made and received from Sept. 2016 to March 2017, court heard. It also included data that was recovered from deleted text messages, as well as voicemails.

In total, Wilkinson testified, 5,800 pages' worth of raw data was pulled from the phones.

The OPP report highlighted some anomalies when it came to the length or frequency of communications between the parties.  One was a conversation between Marisa Hobbs and Heli Kijanen, an associate of the victim of the alleged extortion; the Crown noted a 16-minute call between the two did take place, but no details about the call were discussed in court.

Another highlight included a large increase in the frequency of messages between Marisa Hobbs and the alleged victim, noting there were 198 communication records between the two from Nov 16 to Nov 19, 2016. 

Keith Hobbs also made frequent calls to the victim in the fall of 2016, phoning the person 14 times, all originating from Hobbs.

A few text messages were also read out in court, including one sent by Keith Hobbs that referred to the arrest of a high-profile person in the city.

"We'll take credit for that too," Hobbs wrote.

Tuesday afternoon, proceedings continued with testimony from Alisa Makela, who was a housekeeper for the victim, working one day every two weeks.

Under questioning by the Crown, Makela described giving the victim, who was intoxicated, a ride to camp, and being told of an unspecified physical altercation that had taken place.

The victim's words, Makela said, were hard to follow, and "made no sense."

When they arrived, the victim didn't have keys, so they threw a rock through a window to gain access. Makela left, returning to Thunder Bay.

Makela had previously had a falling out with the victim at the end of a romantic relationship, she testified, and hadn't worked for them in months. When she did return to one of their homes to clean, the house was "disgusting." She testified that socks would stick to the floor, and hands to the counter.

Makela also found a will in one of the homes, signed by the victim. However, the victim would later claim the document was a forgery.

Makela said she also was called by the victim in November of 2017, who wanted a coffee. She said she went to one of their properties with a coffee, and found the victim, in a housecoat, who had soiled themselves. They refused to change clothing.

Makela said the state of intoxication was severe, and described how they also had difficulty turning on the taps to take a shower, to clean themselves up.

At this time, she said Heli Kajinen was also in the home, and her and Makela had an argument. Kajinen said, "what kind of woman would be sleeping with a man, sleeping with all these women."

Makela said she was not having any type of relationship with the victim at that time.

She then testified she hasn't spoken to the victim in more than a year. 

The trial will resume on Wednesday morning at the Thunder Bay courthouse.