The defendant was
convicted by a jury of armed robbery and was sentenced to 25 to 60 years
imprisonment. The evidence presented at
trial included cell phone records obtained through a search warrant issued
after the defendant’s phone was seized when he was arrested in an unrelated
case. The Court of Appeals affirmed the defendant’s
conviction in an unpublished opinion. The Supreme Court has ordered oral argument on the
application to address: (1) whether the
probable cause underlying the search warrant issued during the prior criminal
investigation authorized police to obtain all of the defendant’s cell phone
data; (2) whether the defendant’s reasonable expectation of privacy in his cell
phone data was extinguished when the police obtained the cell phone data in a
prior criminal investigation; (3) if not, whether the search of the cell phone
data in the instant case was within the scope of the probable cause underlying
the search warrant issued during the prior criminal investigation; (4) if not,
whether the search of the cell phone data in the instant case was lawful; and
(5) whether the defendant’s trial counsel was ineffective for failing to
challenge the search of the cell phone data in the instant case on Fourth
Amendment grounds.