Crime & Safety

Defense in McQuain Murders Fights Use of Cell Phone Evidence

Lawyers for Curtis Lopez argue the use of cell phone location records violated his rights to privacy, The Associated Press reports.

A man charged in the killing of his estranged wife and her 11-year-old son says police violated his privacy rights when they used his cell phone to trace his movements before the wife’s body was discovered in Germantown, The Associated Press reports.

Curtis Lopez, 46, is awaiting trial in the deaths of Jane McQuain and her son, William, whose bodies were found in October 2011.

A hearing is scheduled Thursday in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

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Police reportedly used Lopez’s cell phone location records during the two-week span between the day McQuain was last believed to be alive and the night her body was found, which the defense argues violated his rights to privacy. But prosecutors argue Lopez should have no expectation of privacy while driving on public roads from Maryland to North Carolina, according to The Associated Press, which cited records filed in Circuit Court.

Police trace their investigation back to early October after Jane McQuain, 51, failed to arrive at work, .

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On Oct. 12, police entered McQuain's Germantown apartment through a second-story window and found her dead in her bed.

An autopsy revealed she suffered blunt force trauma to her head and was stabbed twice in the back, police said.

Her 2011 Honda CRV was missing along with a flat-screen TV and a lamp. Investigators began a nationwide search for her son, William McQuain.

The next day, Lopez was arrested the next day in Charlotte, N.C., with McQuain's Honda, police said.

On Oct. 18, a police dog found William McQuain's body in a wooded area in Clarksburg. His skull had been crushed, police said. A baseball bat, thought to be the murder weapon, was found nearby. Surveillance footage from a nearby gas station showed Curtis Lopez and William McQuain together on Oct. 1.

Investigators believe Lopez killed the boy then.


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