Page 46 - May June 2019 TPA Journal

must be decided on a case-by-case basis. Here,
In Jones, a case decided three decades after
Appellant did not have a legitimate expectation of
Knotts, the Supreme court addressed the
privacy in his physical movements or his location
“sophisticated surveillance of the sort envisioned
as reflected in the less than three hours of real-
in Knotts,” when the FBI remotely monitored the
time CSLI records accessed by police by pinging
movements of Jones’s vehicle via an attached GPS
his phone less than five times. Five 18 justices on
tracking device for 28 days. Harkening back to
the United States Supreme Court have supported
Olmstead, the Court applied a physical-trespass
the idea that longer-term surveillance might
theory instead of relying on the Katz expectation-
infringe on a person’s legitimate expectation of
of-privacy analysis. Nonetheless, five justices
privacy if the location records reveal the
agreed that “‘longer term GPS monitoring” could
“‘privacies of [his] life,’” but this is not that case.
infringe a person’s legitimate expectation of
privacy “regardless [of] whether those movements
Having overruled Appellant’s grounds for review,
were disclosed to the public at large.”
we affirm the judgment of the court of appeals.
In Carpenter, the Supreme Court considered Sims v. State, No. PD-0941-17, Tex. Crim. App.,
whether a person has a legitimate expectation of Jan. 16th, 2019.
privacy in historical CSLI records. It concluded
that, under the facts of that case, Carpenter had an ****************************************
expectation of privacy. Knotts did not control, it ********************
explained, because Knotts dealt with a less
sophisticated form of surveillance that did not
address the realities of CSLI information, GPS
trackers, and the like. The Supreme Court CONSPIRACY – ELEMENTS
ultimately held that Carpenter had a legitimate
Gonzalez was convicted by a jury for conspiracy
expectation of privacy in at least seven days of
to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine
historical CSLI associated with his cell phone and
and sentenced to 136-months imprisonment. On
that, as a result, the government violated the
appeal, Gonzalez challenges the sufficiency of the
Fourth Amendment when it searched his phone
evidence for both his involvement in the
without a warrant supported by probable cause.
conspiracy and the quantity of cocaine attributable
Even though Carpenter dealt with historical to him, as well as the sentence imposed. We
CSLI, not real-time location information, we AFFIRM the district court on all issues.
believe that the Court’s reasoning in Carpenter
applies to both kinds of records. Gonzalez, a citizen of El Salvador illegally in the
United States, was indicted pursuant to a Drug
Whether a particular government action Enforcement Agency (DEA) investigation into a
constitutes a “16 search” or “seizure” does not large-scale cocaine distribution network
turn on the content of the CSLI records; it turns on responsible for moving cocaine between Mexico
whether the government searched or seized and the United States.
“enough” information that it violated a legitimate
As part of that investigation, the DEA determined
expectation of privacy. There is no bright-line rule
that an individual named Laura Perez-Tinajero
for determining how long police must track a
was one of the network’s key distributers, and it
person’s cell phone in real time before it violates a
established camera surveillance on her home in
person’s legitimate expectation of privacy in those
Dallas. An individual named Wilfredo Reyes,
records. Whether a person has a recognized
from New York, was a regular customer of Perez-
expectation of privacy in real-time CSLI records

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