Conviction may rest on cell phone tracking

BARTOW, Fla. - Cell phone records just might be the key in whether or not a Polk County jury finds Stobert "Toby" Holt guilty of kidnapping and murdering a co-worker.

Robert Wiles disappeared from his family's aviation repair business in April 2008.

His father, who owned the business, got a ransom email and text asking for $750,000. Investigators found those notes came from his son's cell phone.

The prosecution says Holt's cell signal and that of the victim's followed virtually the same path.

"He is totally lying about where he...  He's down here (pointing to a map) figuring out what to do with Robert Wiles' corpse." said assistant state attorney Cass Castillo.

Holt testified someone with the victim's phone may have been following him, or maybe the matching signals were just a coincidence. His defense also presented evidence they say shows tracing cell signals is not an exact science.

"Could he be driving down the Polk Parkway? Yea. Could he be North of there? Yea. Could he be West of there? Yea," said public defender Howardene Garrett.

Wiles body was never found and he is presumed dead. There is no physical evidence to show a murder, but investigators did find a gun in Holt's car.

"Just because Mr. Holt had a gun? Does every person that has a gun shoot someone? I submit the answer to that is 'no,'" said Garrett.

The prosecution also brought up the possibility there was no kidnapping at all, and that that story was just a cover-up for the murder over a workplace grudge.

"It was motivated by ill will by spite, by resentment. And it was certainly unjustified and inexcusable," said Castillo.

The defense says a former co-worker is actually the guilty one.

The jury began deliberations just before 4:00 p.m.