KS: Pushing a button on a cell phone to light up screen was not a plain view; suppression affirmed

Defendant was involved in a fatal car accident, and the officer at the scene allegedly saw the screen of the cell phone in plain view showing texting at the time of the accident. While two U.S. District Court cases support such a plain view, the trial court made findings relying on evidence in the record that a button was pushed to open the phone, and that’s not plain view. State v. Salazar, 2018 Kan. App. LEXIS 55 (Oct. 12, 2018).

Defendant doesn’t show ineffective assistance of counsel for defense counsel not challenging the look through his garage window and seeing a car that had recently been carjacked. The officer was legitimately on the property, and defendant doesn’t flesh out this argument to make it understandable. Williams v. United States, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 176056 (S.D. Ala. Oct. 12, 2018).*