Cal.6th: SW for house for CP didn’t permit search of second house found behind it

Police linked an IP address at the residence of the owner in San José to child pornography, and they obtain a search warrant for the Reynolds residence, garages, and outbuildings. They searched Reynolds’ place for child pornography and didn’t find anything. Behind the house, they discovered another residence where defendant lived. They decided to search that residence under the original warrant. The trial court suppressed, and the court of appeals affirmed. The warrant did not authorize the search of defendant’s house, too, and the good faith exception did not apply. People v. Nguyen, 2017 Cal. App. LEXIS 525 (6th Dist. June 7, 2017):

Police identified an IP address for an Internet account sharing child pornography online. Comcast identified the account subscriber as Jennie Reynolds at 309 South 23rd Street in San José. The police obtained a search warrant for the residence, garages, and outbuildings at the address. While searching Reynolds’ house, the police discovered defendant Kevin Nguyen was living in a separate residence behind the house. The police then searched Nguyen’s residence and found a laptop with child pornography. The trial court found the search overbroad and granted Nguyen’s motion to suppress.

The Attorney General appeals. He contends the warrant expressly authorized the search. He argues the warrant affidavit set forth probable cause to search any residence on the property because anyone on the property could have accessed Reynolds’ computer network wirelessly. Finally, the Attorney General contends the police acted in good faith reliance on the warrant.

We hold the police lacked probable cause to search defendant’s residence because they had no basis to believe the suspect network was accessed from defendant’s residence. We further hold the warrant did not expressly authorize the search, and the police lacked good faith reliance on the warrant. We will affirm the judgment.