Washington v. Ibarra-Cisneros
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Petitioner Gilberto Ibarra-Cisneros and his brother Adrian Ibarra-Raya, were separately prosecuted on drug charges in November 2006. Both moved unsuccessfully to suppress evidence discovered as a result of the warrantless search of Ibarra-Raya's home. Specifically, Ibarra-Cisneros argued to suppress the evidence against him as the fruit of an unlawful use of Ibarra-Raya's cell phone, which was seized during the search. The appellate court determined that the search of the home was unlawful, but that the connection between Ibarra-Raya's cell phone and "the bindle found at Mr. Ibarra-Cisneros's feet [was] too attenuated to affect his cocaine possession conviction." Upon review, the Supreme Court concluded that the appellate court erred in relying on the "attenuation doctrine" as the basis to allow the cocaine evidence against Ibarra-Cisneros: "In light of the way this case has developed, the only fair resolution of Ibarra-Cisneros's appeal is to treat is as the Court of Appeals treated Ibarra-Raya's appeal. The State has not met its burden of purging the taint resulting from the unlawful home search." The Court remanded the case to the trial court "with the acknowledgement that, because the warrantless home search was unlawful, all evidence seized as a result must be suppressed."
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