Day 8 - January 28, 2015

The court reviewed proposed jury instructions, accepting some revisions while leaving questions about distribution, intent, and knowledge of drug type and quantity unresolved. Counsel agreed that jurors must be unanimous on the specific drug and whether the quantity threshold was met, with wording still to be refined. Alex Miller testified about a March 16, 2013 Stack Overflow question concerning a Tor hidden service. He said the account's display name changed from Ross Ulbricht to Frosty within a minute of posting and described later changes to the question and account email address. The court admitted the question, an answer and response, and revision history over defense objections. On cross-examination, Miller acknowledged that account records did not identify the actual person registering. Further questioning distinguished Facebook-based registration from a later Google OpenID login, which relied on Google to confirm control of the email address. Gary Luis Alford compared laptop files with correspondence, travel, financial and account records, including a server-spreadsheet IP address appearing in Gmail login records. A stipulation described eight attempted undercover drug purchases and positive tests for all substances submitted. Alford also described purchasing a hacking pack but said he never opened the supplied links. On cross-examination, he acknowledged reviewing only laptop files provided to him and four-day gaps represented in login records, without recalling whether he checked email activity for those dates. Outside the jury's presence, the court maintained restrictions on questioning Alford about LinkedIn, FinCEN and TECS, while allowing relevant impeachment. It deferred possible affirmative use of sworn complaints as government admissions until a possible defense case. Prosecutors later read admitted chats proposing a public backstory portraying the original administrator as gone and DPR as a successor. Those excerpts described a proposal, not an established transfer of control. Dylan Critten described nine intercepted counterfeit IDs and testified that he believed their photographs depicted Ulbricht. He recounted a visit to the delivery address and a hypothetical statement about obtaining illegal items through Silk Road. Critten said Ulbricht did not admit purchasing the IDs. On cross-examination, he confirmed that the interview was voluntary and that he had invited Ulbricht to speak hypothetically. Michael Duch described selling mainly heroin as deezletime, including escrow, bitcoin payments, commissions and packaging practices. His summary reported 2,414 orders and 31,827 heroin bags, with an estimated weight of 3.18 kilograms. He understood DPR to run Silk Road but did not know DPR's identity. Duch disclosed his cooperation agreement and hope for time served, without a guaranteed sentence. Cross-examination addressed his heroin use and sentencing incentives, including his expectation, but no agreement, that prosecutors would not file a prior-felony information. The court said cross-examination would continue the following day.