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Rental car records indicate Vincent Brothers put about 5,400 miles on a rental car.

The mileage is a key issue in the case, because the prosecutor says Vincent Brothers rented a Dodge Neon and used it to drive from Columbus, Ohio to Bakersfield and back to kill five members of his family.  The defense says such a trip is not physically possible in the prosecution’s timeframe and insists Brothers was in Ohio visiting family at the time.

And a representative from the rental car company says their records are sometimes inaccurate. Cheick Omar Tall says Dollar-Rent-A-Car attempts to keep track of mileage for maintenance purposes. But sometimes employees enter generic information about mileage and the time of check-in in order to process the paperwork quickly.

The Dodge Neon was almost brand new when Vincent Brothers rented it, according to court documents. That means only a handful of people rented the Neon before and after Brothers.  Here’s how the rental records break down:

Sheila Harding

Rented: June 7^th-June 10^th

Starting Mileage: 1

Ending Mileage: 806

Miles Driven: 805

Linda Avery

Rented June 10^th-June 13^th

Starting Mileage: 806

Ending Mileage: 863

Miles Driven: 57 Miles

Shawnia Williams

Rented: June 13^th-July 1st

Starting Mileage: 863

Ending Mileage: 1000

Miles Driven: 137

Steven Campbell

Rented: July 1^st-July 2^nd

Starting Mileage: 863

Ending Mileage: 2709

Miles Driven: 1846

Vincent Brothers

Rented: July 2^nd-July 11^th

Starting Mileage: 2709

Ending Mileage: 8133

Miles Driven: 5424

Joseph Vitkay

Rented: July 11^th-July 14^th

Starting Mileage: 8133

Ending Mileage: 8552 (testified)