People v. Brandt, 2019 IL App (4th) 180219 (April). Episode 621 (Duration 17:08 )







Police use their own sense of smell to go get a warrant for a house.























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Charges







Defendant was charged by information with unlawful possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance (720 ILCS 570/401(a)(2)(B) (a substance containing cocaine)) and unlawful possession with intent to deliver cannabis (720 ILCS 550/5(d)).







Facts







The South Central Illinois Drug Task Force (Task Force) received an anonymous call that defendant was selling drugs from his home.  Inspectors decided to conduct a “knock and talk” at defendant’s home in hopes of obtaining defendant’s consent to search the home. Three agents drove to defendant’s home to conduct the “knock and talk.”







The three officers drove in separate vehicles.







Defendant lived way out in rural Jersey County. His house was the only one out there. An officer parked underneath and open window with a fan blowing air outside. She immediately smelled the odor of cannabis. Defendant refused to give consent and then he left. Police stayed, secured the outside, and went to get a warrant.







The execution of that warrant resulted, in part, in the discovery of a sandwich bag containing approximately nine grams of cannabis in a cabinet above the kitchen window.







Trial Court Grants The Motion







The trial court granted the motion to suppress holding in part that,







“Placing a trained drug task force officer near an open window of a home when the possession and sale of cannabis is suspected is, in this court’s view, akin to bringing a drug dog on a person’s front porch (Jardines, 569 U.S. 1) or on a third floor landing outside a defendant’s apartment door within a locked apartment building (Burns, 2016 IL 118973). As such, this court finds that the intrusion into the curtilage of the defendant’s home, namely the open window,