US v. Taylor: Taylor was involved in the trafficking of marijuana from Arizona to Maryland. He involvement was uncovered partly due to the Government’s obtaining of cellphone-related records pursuant to the Stored Communications Act and the Rules of Criminal Procedure. That information led to a GPS tracking warrant and, eventually, search warrants which were executed on various properties. Taylor was convicted at trial on multiple drug offenses and sentenced to 144 months in prison. She then filed a 2255 motion arguing that her trial counsel had been ineffective for failing to move to suppress the evidence found as a result of the warrants. The district court denied the motion, concluding that any motion to suppress would not have been successful.
On appeal, the Fourth Circuit affirmed. While noting that the law in the area of how and when the Government can obtain cellphone data has been in flux, at the time of these operations it had complied with applicable statutory and regulatory provisions. As a result, any motion to suppress would have been subject to a good faith analysis and would have been denied. As the evidence would have been admissible, there was no ineffective assistance of counsel based on not trying to suppress it.
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