LISBON — A visiting judge denied the suppression of evidence resulting from several search warrants in the William P. Long Jr. aggravated murder case, ruling there was probable cause for the warrants to be issued based on the affidavits presented.

“After numerous reviews of the affidavits attached to the individual search warrant requests, the court finds that all affidavits provided the judge with a substantial basis for the warrant to issue,” retired Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge William T. McGinty wrote.

Some of the evidence secured through these particular search warrants included: the defendant’s 2019 white Chevy 2500 pickup truck, the defendant’s home at 807 N. Market St., Lisbon, Verizon phone records, Life 360 records of the defendant, Apple accounts of the defendant, Amazon/Blink security camera at the victim’s home on Carey Road, Salem in Butler Township, Allstate record of driving of account belonging to defendant and a Google GEOfence.

All of these search warrants were issued by Columbiana County Common Pleas Court Judge Megan Bickerton, who’s handling the Long case, so the visiting judge, McGinty, was selected to review them and rule on the defense team’s motion to suppress those search warrants. There are three additional search warrants related to the case that were not issued by Bickerton, so she’ll be issuing a decision on those which remains pending. The evidence for those warrants include a 2005 Chevy Pickup Truck with extended cab, an Apple Iphone and Verizon wireless records.

Long, 51, North Market Street, Lisbon, was charged in May 2024 with aggravated murder and murder, both unclassified felonies, along with first-degree felony discharging a firearm upon a roadway, and firearm specifications for use of a gun for each count, in the death of 50-year-old Michelle A. Long on Nov. 29, 2023 outside her Carey Road home in Butler Township. She was his ex-wife and a teacher at Leetonia High School.

His jury trial remains set for Feb. 3 and he remains jailed under a $1.5 million cash or surety bond.

An upcoming hearing is set for 2 p.m. Dec. 8 to determine whether “Trax” software-generated maps related to cellular phone location evidence in the case can be used at trial.

County Assistant Prosecutors Jennifer Bonish and Alec Beech are expected to present a “Trax” representative to testify about the program the defense has been challenging as allegedly unreliable, unvalidated and unaccepted by any recognized forensic community. During a previous hearing, the defense team’s hired expert testified.

The discussion regarding “Trax” started with the filing of a motion by defense attorneys David Betras and Frank Cassese who had asked the court to conduct what’s called a Daubert hearing, to determine the admissibility of the challenged evidence, and to exclude all exhibits related to “Trax”-generated maps, plots or analysis and to preclude any witness from offering opinions or conclusions based on “Trax” or other unverified GPS data.

The cellular location evidence and “Trax” analysis allegedly places Long near the scene of the 2023 homicide at the critical time when the victim was shot to death in her vehicle while getting her mail.

The ruling by McGinty talked about the search warrant procedure being thorough, progressive and detailing, providing the judge with comprehensive affidavits.

“None of these affidavits were ‘barebone.’ Each provided the court with an update of the robust investigation, what new evidence was sought and a substantial basis for why it was sought,” he wrote.

McGinty said that “given the totality of circumstances, there were reasonable grounds to believe a nexus existed between the place searched and the evidence sought; the judge issuing the search warrant had a substantial basis for concluding probable cause existed based on the information contained within the four corners of the affidavit.”

McGinty shared a great amount of detail from the stated facts in the affidavits, noting the victim was shot four times, with the direction from right to left, while she was picking up her mail at the front of her residence. The victim and defendant were involved in an ongoing divorce proceeding. On Nov. 28, 2023, the day before the murder, the defendant’s motion to overturn the magistrate’s decision in the divorce case, which including the awarding of child support and spousal support, was denied.

On Nov. 29, 2023, the victim’s domestic relations attorney was reportedly told by the victim “that she was concerned for her safety because the defendant’s behavior was erratic and getting worse.”

According to the court document, the victim failed to pick up her child from the defendant’s property later in Lisbon and the video camera on her house “revealed that about 5:45 p.m. on Nov. 29, 2023, a vehicle pulled up next to the victim’s vehicle which was stopped in front of her mailbox. This vehicle pulled up next to her vehicle and left approximately 2 minutes later.”

The victim was found dead in her vehicle, which was still  in gear with the engine running, after a 911 call at 9:28 p.m. Nov. 29, 2023.

The court document also went into detail about the defendant’s guns, how he kept a loaded revolver in his nightstand and how a witness found the revolver was missing after checking the nightstand when learning of the victim’s death. The document said a friend of the defendant was interviewed and allegedly said that while he was with the defendant in July 2023, “the defendant stated that if the divorce did not go well, that he was going to shoot the victim and let law enforcement figure it out.”