Commonwealth v. McCarthy

This appeal raises the issue whether a visitor’s parking space at an apartment complex is within the curtilage of a tenant’s apartment. If it is, then a search warrant issued for the apartment would encompass that parking space. A District Court judge ruled that the space is not within the curtilage, and granted the defendant’s motion to suppress evidence found during a search of his automobile.1 We conclude that the visitor’s *872parking space is beyond the curtilage of the defendant’s apartment, and accordingly affirm the order of the motion judge.

I

On November 4,1996, the Quincy police…