United States v. Caraballo

CALABRESI, Circuit Judge:

Early in the summer of 2011, Brattle-boro police made a series of controlled purchases of narcotics from Frank Cara-ballo. After the body of Melissa Barratt, an associate of Caraballo’s, was discovered on the morning of July 29, 2011, the officers investigating her death asked Sprint, Caraballo’s cell-phone provider, to track the GPS coordinates of Caraballo’s cell phone over a two-hour period. Sprint complied with the officers’ request, and Cara-ballo was located and apprehended later that day. Caraballo contends that the “pinging” of his cell phone was a search that…