GPS Used To Pin Charges In Girl's Death

Data from a global positioning system installed in a man's car by a suspicious wife has led police to file murder charges in the death of the couple's 12-year-old baby sitter.

George Ford Jr., 42, of Piscataway, N.J., told police he was taking Shyanne Somers home the night of July 8 but took a detour to show her some horses, then accidentally ran her over as he turned his truck around on a rural road in central New York.

Ford, who has a seasonal home in South Otselic, was held without bail and is to be arraigned Monday in Chenango County Court.

Chenango County Sheriff Thomas Loughren said Thursday that Ford's routes of travel, times and speed were all recorded on a GPS system that Ford's wife had installed a few days earlier because she suspected he was having an affair.

"Wherever he drove, the locations, the roads, the times, the speed — it's all in there," Loughren told CBS affiliate WBNG.

He was charged Thursday with second-degree murder. He was originally charged with a felony count of reckless endangerment.

Ford's lawyer, Randel Scharf, disputed the importance of the GPS data and said the case against his client was weak.

"Mr. Ford didn't kill the little girl intentionally," Scharf said. The GPS shows the location of Ford's truck but "doesn't show the time she was run over."

WBNG correspondent Jessica Light notes that the time of death is key. The sheriff said the GPS data proves that Ford was alone with the girl for three hours before he killed her. Ford's defense attorney, however, says the data proves the opposite — that after accidentally running over Somers around midnight, Ford was in shock and stayed on the road for three hours afterwards.

Investigators said the GPS data show the truck was not at the location where she was killed until 3:20 a.m. They said Ford didn't take the girl to see horses, but instead drove around other roads and spent more than three hours with her behind an abandoned house.

Police said Ford told them he didn't take Shyanne to a hospital for nearly six hours because he was in shock, then he got lost. The GPS showed Ford drove around with the girl's body for a while, passing the hospital and traveling around the city for a few minutes before taking her there.

"This evidence is really unusual in a homicide case," Loughren said. "But in this particular case, it's crucial. It's like a gift from God for Shyanne, that's how we're looking at it."

Deputies say Ford had a cell phone with him but didn't attempt to use it to call for help.

Scharf said police failed to do an aggressive investigation early on so "they jimmy the GPS data and try to fashion an intentional murder out of it, which is horrendous. It's really a stretch."