State v. Prier

FONES, Justice.

The trial judge sustained defendant’s motion to suppress the evidence, consisting of marijuana seized in a warrantless entry into defendant’s premises at the direction of a Tennessee Highway Patrol helicopter pilot who observed three separate patches of plants near defendant’s house. Defendant insisted that all of the plants were within the curtilage and the trial judge reluctantly agreed. The Court of Criminal Appeals, in a two-one decision, reversed without discussing the issue of whether the plants seized were located within the curti-lage and entitled to the same Fourth…