Supreme Court of Connecticut
State v. Smith
August 9, 2022344 Conn. 229
Summary
The court held that warrants authorizing searches of the defendant's cell phone and provider records were not supported by probable cause because the affidavits did not connect the defendant or the devices to the charged crimes. The phone warrant also lacked particularity because it authorized an unrestricted extraction without limiting the data categories or time period, while the court could not determine whether the provider-record warrant satisfied particularity. The resulting error was harmless for some convictions but not for convictions arising from the robbery and shooting of Chen, the Camry theft, and the Forester arson, which were reversed for a new trial.