Good Case on Cell Phone Tracking
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OPINION OF THE COURT BY CHIEF JUSTICE MINTON
AFFIRMING
The grand jury indicted Dovontia Reed on one count of first-degree robbery, one count of possession of a handgun by a convicted felon, and one count of receiving stolen property (firearm). Reed moved pretrial to suppress the location data obtained from the police’s search of his real-time cell-site location information (CSLI) and the evidence obtained from the search. The trial court denied his motion. Reed then entered a conditional guilty plea, reserving his right to challenge the denial of his suppression motion.
On review, the Court of Appeals reversed the trial court’s denial of Reed’s suppression motion, finding that the officers’ acquisition of Reed’s real-time CSLI constituted a warrantless, unreasonable search. Additionally, the Court of Appeals found that the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule did not apply because the officers were not acting in reliance on binding precedent
We granted the Commonwealth’s motion for discretionary review. Like the Court of Appeals, we find that the police acquisition of Reed’s real-time CSLI was a warrantless, unreasonable search, and we find that the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule does not apply in this case. Accordingly, we affirm the decision of the Court of Appeals to reverse the trial court’s judgment and remand this case to the trial court for further proceedings.