United States v. Rainone, No. 14-3154 (7th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseRainone was suspected of robberies. In 2009, officers placed a GPS device on Rainone’s vehicle without his consent or a warrant. With information gained from the device, they arrested Rainone, then obtained a warrant to search Rainone’s condominium, where they recovered a firearm from a nightstand in a bedroom that contained mail addressed to Rainone, photographs, and Rainone’s birth certificate and Illinois identification card. Rainone pled guilty to residential burglary in state court. Charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, 18 U.S.C. 922(g), Rainone filed an unsuccessful motion to suppress evidence obtained as a result of the GPS. Rainone’s roommate testified, in exchange for immunity, that no one except Rainone stayed overnight in the bedroom where the gun was found; that others had keys to the condominium; and that she never saw Rainone with a gun and never saw a gun in the condominium. The gun's registered owner testified that someone stole it from his home in 2008 and that he had never seen Rainone before. The court gave a jury instruction explaining that multiple people can share possession of an object. The Seventh Circuit affirmed Rainone’s conviction and 15-year sentence, rejecting a challenge to the jury instruction, and claims that the exclusionary rule should apply to evidence obtained because of GPS surveillance and that testimony that the gun was stolen was irrelevant and unfairly prejudicial.
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