United States v. Hill, No. 13-4806 (4th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseDefendants Barker, Dunigan, and Hill plead guilty to aiding and abetting possession with intent to distribute heroin and appealed the denial of their motions to suppress. Law enforcement officers, suspecting Barker of moving without notification while on federal supervised release, obtained a warrant for his arrest and executed it at his new home. The officers found Barker and Dunigan and Hill, also on supervised release, inside the home and conducted a walk-through of the apartment to look for contraband and other evidence of supervised release violations. After a drug-detection dog sniffed around the apartment, the officers sought a search warrant. The court concluded that the court's precedent required the officers in this situation to have a search warrant rather than merely reasonable suspicion to search Barker's home; held that the walk-through and dog sniff were unlawful searches; rejected the government's contention that the good-faith exception applies with respect to the evidence seized as a result of the dog sniff; and vacated the judgment and remanded for the district court to properly consider whether, under the "independent source" doctrine, the officers in this case would have sought a warrant even if they had not conducted the unlawful searches.
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