Devin Newell — Direct/Cross
92 linesJUDGE NEWMAN: All right, thank you. You may call your next witness.
MR. CONRAD: State calls Devin Newell.
The witness, DEVIN NEWELL, was first duly sworn and testified as follows:
COURT CLERK: Take a seat in the witness stand, please. You can adjust the microphone. State your name again for the record. Spell your last name.
DEVIN NEWELL: Devin Patrick Newell, N-e-w-e-l-l.
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. CONRAD:
MR. CONRAD: Good afternoon -- or excuse me, almost afternoon, Mr. Newell.
DEVIN NEWELL: Good morning.
MR. CONRAD: All right. Where are you employed, sir?
DEVIN NEWELL: General Motors.
MR. CONRAD: And what are your duties there at General Motors?
DEVIN NEWELL: I'm a senior technical expert in Advanced Driver Assist Systems.
MR. CONRAD: Okay, and can you just give the jury a very short version of what that entails? Very short, please.
DEVIN NEWELL: I investigate fuel performance issues and concerns with our advanced driver system systems.
MR. CONRAD: All right, and as part of that role, do you help maintain certain records that are kept by GM in the normal course of business?
DEVIN NEWELL: I don't necessarily maintain those records, but I'm aware of records that we keep on servers relative to vehicle data that can be of assistance in field performance investigations.
MR. CONRAD: Okay, and when you say field performance investigations, that's something you do, correct?
DEVIN NEWELL: That's correct.
MR. CONRAD: All right, and that references generally what? I mean, what does that mean when you say fuel performance investigations?
DEVIN NEWELL: Understanding how our vehicles may perform in the field. Active safety systems include things like forward collision alert and automatic emergency braking. So, as we look at how those things perform in the field, vehicle data and other data we collect can be helpful in understanding what is occurring with those events, understanding how our systems are performing.
MR. CONRAD: Okay, and do modern GM vehicles under certain conditions upload information to GM servers?
DEVIN NEWELL: That's correct. We've got telematics units in our vehicles. That's a fancy name for sending information over the air. Those -- as part of our normal course of business, those electronic modules in the vehicle collect lots of pieces of data from different censors and modules in the vehicle, and that information can be sent by cell phone, networks, and/or Wifi back to servers at General Motors.
MR. CONRAD: And General Motors then keeps that information in the course of normal business, correct?
DEVIN NEWELL: That is correct.
MR. CONRAD: Now, if someone buys a GM vehicle and they are not comfortable with uploading certain types of information, can they opt out of some of the things?
DEVIN NEWELL: Certainly privacy, customer privacy is a big concern at General Motors, as you would expect. We've got lots of teams that look at that, investigate and understand that, and we've got various protocols in place to protect the customer's privacy.
MR. CONRAD: And just -- let's speak generally. Again, what specific sorts of information is routinely uploaded from GM vehicles to the GM servers?
DEVIN NEWELL: It can be a lot of different pieces of information. Diagnostic trouble codes with your engine or brake systems could be information we upload. We monitor the performance of things like your battery to understand if your battery is getting low or needs some charging, and other pieces of information about what the vehicle may be doing. That can and does include, I would say, GPS information, your vehicle location, and potentially speed and things like that.
MR. CONRAD: Okay, and that sort of information is kept by GM in the course of the normal business. Is that correct?
DEVIN NEWELL: That's correct, sir.
MR. CONRAD: And I'm going to draw your attention to March of last year. Are you aware, at least as of today, that SLED sent a search warrant to GM?
DEVIN NEWELL: That's correct. I believe a search warrant was sent to General Motors to generally request information we may have about a particular vehicle.
MR. CONRAD: All right, and I know you don't have the search warrant in front of you, but did you make a note of what vehicle identification number, or VIN, that search warrant was requesting information for?
DEVIN NEWELL: I do. I have that number here with me. I can read that.
MR. CONRAD: Can you read that, please?
DEVIN NEWELL: Yeah. VIN, it's the vehicle identification number that uniquely identifies the vehicle. It's a 17 character number: 1GNSKFKD0MR210998.
MR. CONRAD: Okay, and let's fast forward to last Friday, which I believe was February 10th if I looked at my calendar correctly. Did it come to your attention that even though that search warrant had been served back in March of last year, GM, in fact, had some information that was responsive to that original search warrant?
DEVIN NEWELL: Yeah, that's correct. I wasn't necessarily involved in the search warrant back in March, but I did become aware Friday evening that additional information not previously given before existed.
MR. CONRAD: All right, and so that -- GM did, in fact, have some information on servers for that particular event, correct?
DEVIN NEWELL: That's correct.
MR. CONRAD: That had not been previously provided to law enforcement prior to last Friday.
DEVIN NEWELL: That is my understanding, yes.
MR. CONRAD: All right, and -- okay. I'm going to show you what's been marked as State's Exhibit 515. 515.
DEVIN NEWELL: Thank you.
MR. CONRAD: And I'm going to ask if you recognize that CD, sir.
DEVIN NEWELL: Yes, that's correct. That's a CD with information on it that I reviewed on a laptop earlier today, and I have signed and dated the CD.
MR. CONRAD: All right, and did you verify that the records contained on that CD is the information GM provided in response to that original March search warrant?
DEVIN NEWELL: Yes, that's correct. I reviewed the three spreadsheets, Excel files that were on here, and those are, in fact, the same information that was stored in our databases and provided to you. And, yes, I can authenticate that.
MR. CONRAD: Okay, and so those records contained on this CD are authenticate copies of records maintained by GM in the normal course of business?
DEVIN NEWELL: Yes, sir.
MR. CONRAD: All right, and just briefly, what sorts of information was contained? And we're not going to ask you to go line by line or anything because there's a pretty voluminous amount of data, correct?
DEVIN NEWELL: Yeah. There's three different Excel sheets, information collected over three days. Again, as I kind of talked, I have not reviewed the details of this. I was not asked to analyze it. The form and content is what we get there. But generally speaking, that information includes, it says vehicle diagnostic information, information on the battery systems, and GPS information.
MR. CONRAD: Okay. GPS information, including speed information?
DEVIN NEWELL: That's correct. Longitude, latitude, speed information are included in there.
MR. CONRAD: At this time, the State would move to enter Exhibit 515 into evidence.
MR. BARBER: No objection.
JUDGE NEWMAN: It's admitted.
(DVD MARKED AS STATE'S EXHIBIT NUMBER 515 WAS RECEIVED INTO EVIDENCE.)
MR. CONRAD: All right, nothing further from the State.
JUDGE NEWMAN: By the defense?
MR. BARBER: Thank you, Your Honor.
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. BARBER:
MR. BARBER: Good morning, sir.
DEVIN NEWELL: Good morning.
MR. BARBER: I just have maybe one minute worth of questions. So, you were not part of the -- you weren't working on this when the search warrant came in. Is that correct?
DEVIN NEWELL: That's correct.
MR. BARBER: And you just became aware of this on Friday?
DEVIN NEWELL: That's correct.
MR. BARBER: How did you become aware of it?
DEVIN NEWELL: GM, General Motors' legal staff reached out to me in response to the subpoena as a person who could come down and authenticate these records.
MR. BARBER: The legal staff told you that you had information responsive to the search warrant?
DEVIN NEWELL: That's correct.
MR. BARBER: Okay.
DEVIN NEWELL: I'm sorry, that General Motors had information responsive. Not me personally.
MR. BARBER: Yeah. I apologize for that. Of course General Motors.
DEVIN NEWELL: Thank you.
MR. BARBER: Are you aware of the testimony that occurred earlier in this case regarding reverse engineering the electronics in the Chevy Suburban?
DEVIN NEWELL: I have general knowledge that some FBI folks have looked at some infotainment -- information inside the infotainment system in the vehicle.
MR. BARBER: Well, do you have any knowledge of any reverse engineering efforts the FBI conducted over the course of a full year?
DEVIN NEWELL: I have not been involved in those or not aware of any details of that, no, sir.
MR. BARBER: Maybe you can ask -- answer one quick technical question. The timestamps in this data, where do they come from?
DEVIN NEWELL: Again, I have not reviewed this specific data, but the timestamps of these things here, when GPS information is collected by a GPS receiver, included in that is timestamp information.
MR. BARBER: Okay, and then finally, this is information that was uploaded to a server at GM?
DEVIN NEWELL: That's correct.
MR. BARBER: No further questions, Your Honor.
JUDGE NEWMAN: Anything further?
MR. CONRAD: Not from the State, Your Honor.
JUDGE NEWMAN: You may step down.
DEVIN NEWELL: Thank you, sir.
(The witness exited the stand.)