Page 27 - TPA Journal November December 2024

Joe C. Tooley, Legal Digest Editor
Joe C. Tooley, Attorneys & Counselors, Rockwall, Texas
www.TooleyLaw.com 972-722-1058

TEXAS POLICE ASSOCIATION

LEGAL DIGEST

November - December 2024

AUTHOR’S NOTE: It is the goal of this submission to extract those portions of relevant appellate
opinions or the syllabus of the legal reporter which bear directly upon law enforcement methods
and provide guidance for officers on an operational level. Much of the information pertaining to
these cases is lifted verbatim from the court opinion or syllabus with independent analysis inserted
as appropriate. Due to clarity for training purposes, the distinction between quotes from the
opinions and inserted analysis is not always identified and legal citations within the opinion are
often omitted. Emphasis is placed upon reported decisions from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

WARRANTS - Geo fence is unconstitutional from five rural post offices in DeSoto County and
Tunica County, Mississippi. At the time of the rob-
A jury found Appellants guilty of robbery and bery, Cobbs was headed to Lake Cormorant, the
conspiracy to commit robbery based on evidence fourth of five stops he would make along his
obtained through a geofence warrant. On appeal, route.
Appellants challenge the constitutionality of this The mail that Cobbs collected included registered
novel type of warrant under the Fourth mail bags, which contained cash receipts collected
Amendment and maintain that the district court by the Postal Service from the sale of items such
erred by failing to suppress all evidence derived as money orders and stamps. By the time that
therefrom. Cobbs arrived at Lake Cormorant, he had already
We hold that the use of geofence warrants—at collected registered mail bags from three other
least as described herein—is unconstitutional post offices along his route.
under the Fourth Amendment. In doing so, we part At approximately 5:20 p.m., Cobbs arrived at the
ways with our esteemed colleagues on the Fourth Lake Cormorant Post Office. As he normally
Circuit. With that said, we agree with the district would, Cobbs backed his mail truck up to the back
court that, here, law enforcement acted in good door, where he would retrieve mail bags waiting
faith in relying on this type of warrant. for him inside the post office. Before Cobbs could
Accordingly, we AFFIRM the district court’s open the back door to the post office, however, an
denial of Appellants’ motion to suppress. unknown assailant—later determined to be
On February 5, 2018, three individuals acting in Defendant-Appellant Gilbert McThunel—sprayed
concert robbed Sylvester Cobbs, a Contract Route Cobbs with pepper spray, struck Cobbs multiple
Driver with the United States Postal Service. As a times with a handgun, threatened to kill him, and
Route Driver, Cobbs delivered and picked up mail grabbed the registered mail bags from Cobbs’s

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