Igboji v. Texas (original by judge newell)
Annotate this CaseAppellant Jerel Igboji worked at a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Stafford, Texas. Shortly after the restaurant closed for the night on December 10, 2015, two armed men entered the restaurant through an unsecured back door. The men forced Appellant and his coworkers into the freezer while they took the money from the cash registers. After taking the money, the men fled, and the manager triggered the security alarm. Officers with the Stafford Police Department responded to the restaurant and began investigating the robbery that night. Officers interviewed the employees that were present during the robbery and learned the robbers entered through the back door, which Appellant had left unsecured when he took the trash out that night. Appellant cooperated with the investigation and told officers that he was asked to take the trash out by the manager, Tammi Ball. When officers spoke to Ball, however, she told them that Appellant had offered to take the trash out, which she found to be suspicious because, according to her, Appellant usually avoided work. Ball also said that Appellant took the trash out through the restaurant’s back door, which was against the restaurant’s policy. Appellant agreed to meet with a detective, who asked whether Appellant had video taken of the robbery that was posted to Snapchat. Appellant explained that Snapchat automatically deleted the videos after 24 hours and told the detective he did not have any other videos. The detective gave Appellant two options: (1) give consent to search the phone, or (2) police would seize the phone and obtain a search warrant. Appellant responded that the detective should get a search warrant, at which point Appellant’s phone was seized. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals remanded this case back to the court of appeals to reconsider whether exigent circumstances existed to justify the warrantless seizure of Appellant’s cell phone, and whether the officer’s conduct in seizing the property to obtain a warrant was reasonable under those circumstances.
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