A surprise witness for the government with new information and admitting new evidence to the case, took the stand in the Rudy Quinata trial today. Mr. Quinata is on trial for the murder of former Umatac mayor Daniel Sanchez on April 1, 2021. Prior to the new witness testimony, Quinata’s half-sister Dorothea Santiago was questioned about whether she had tried to call her brother when she discovered he was not home. Ms. Santiago told the jury she never bothered to call her brother’s phone because his girlfriend Joyner Sked would hide the phone all the time but never told the jury that she had been in possession of the phone.
Retired Navy Exchange vice president Philip Harrison revealed to the jury that he happened upon a cell phone along the beach in Umatac while he was picking up trash. When the phone was turned on, a picture of Rudy Quinata and Joyner Sked appeared as the wallpaper on the cellphone. Attempting to return the phone to its owner, Mr. Harrison called back the last incoming phone number. The person on the other end of the phone turned out to be Mr. Sanchez’s younger brother, Joseph Sanchez.
Joseph Sanchez called his uncle Rudy Quinata’s cellphone in search of his brother. According to Mr. Sanchez, he retrieved the phone from Mr. Harrison and gave it to his Uncle Rudy’s sister Dorothea Santiago. The day after Sanchez gave the phone to his Auntie Dorothea, he said, “On Sunday I told my nephew I think I made a mistake by giving her that phone, but I gave it to my nephew, he’s a police officer.”
The contents of the phone have not been divulged yet and trial will continue Monday at 10 a.m.
