{"id":7885,"date":"2012-12-29T14:16:19","date_gmt":"2012-10-27T12:44:51","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-10-27T12:44:51","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=7885","title":{"rendered":"NJ: While cell phone records were inproperly obtained, that did not lead to the discovery of the victim’s body, so it should not have been suppressed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defendant\u2019s cell phone records were improperly obtained by a flawed process, but the inevitable discovery doctrine supported the finding of the victim\u2019s body after the finding of the murder weapon, so the body would not be suppressed. State v. Smith<\/a>, 212 N.J. 365, 54 A.3d 772 (2012):<\/p>\n

We turn then to the question whether the State did establish, by clear and convincing evidence, that it had sufficient probable cause to obtain these telephone records without regard to the improperly-obtained information they gleaned from reviewing those records. That inquiry, in turn, requires consideration of whether it would have obtained those records in the ordinary course, and whether it originally obtained the tainted information through flagrant police misconduct. In analyzing these questions, it is important to recognize that we are dealing with three separate sets of telephone records: those of Roberts, obtained through Holt’s deficient affidavit; those of defendant, obtained through an error on the part of his service provider; and those of Bellinger, obtained as a result of error both on the part of the police and his service provider.<\/p>\n

The initial question is whether the record supports a finding that the police would have, through a source independent of Holt’s defective affidavit, sought and obtained Roberts’s telephone records. We are satisfied that it does. We previously laid out in chronological detail the manner in which this investigation unfolded. That record permits us to isolate what the police knew and when they learned it.<\/p>\n

Although Holt prepared and submitted his affidavit seeking Roberts’s telephone records on January 14, the trial court found the records were not received until at least January 21. By that date, the police knew that serious discrepancies existed with respect to the information provided by Roberts’s alibi witnesses. They also knew that several of those alibi witnesses said they had spoken to Roberts on his cell phone while he was at the barber shop. We are satisfied that those discrepancies, which were significant both in terms of their nature and their quantity, when combined with the knowledge of the ongoing, violent dispute between Roberts and Priester, would have permitted the police to demonstrate the existence of probable cause for an examination of Roberts’s telephone records, entirely untainted by the initially deficient affidavit.<\/p>\n

Further, normal police investigative procedures would have led them to seek a communications data warrant to review Roberts’s telephone records to determine if they could lend support to Roberts’s alibi or indicate that it might be concocted. That they would have sought such a warrant as part of their normal investigation is indicated by the fact that they did, in fact, seek such a warrant, even though the application itself was flawed.<\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

In sum, the question of suppression of the telephone records and the evidence developed from those records involves a two-step analysis, involving both the inevitable discovery doctrine and the independent source rule. The independent source here is the murder weapon; once that was recovered, the police would, through their normal investigatory steps, have inevitably been led to Bellinger and to defendant. The Appellate Division concluded correctly that the trial court should not have granted the motion to suppress.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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