United States v. Smith

WOOD, Circuit Judge.

Police suspected Walter C. Smith III of selling drugs out of a pink house in Mulberry Grove, Illinois. They set up surveillance and controlled buys, which provided them with probable cause for the search warrants that they obtained on January 21, 2005, and May 17, 2006. In searching the premises, they retrieved large sums of money, surveillance equipment, firearms, and large quantities of cocaine and marijuana. Smith was convicted of eight cocaine-related offenses based on this evidence, but he believes that the district court made two errors that entitle him to a new…