Julian Christopher Ferguson v. State, 10-14-00354-CR

Appellant Julian Ferguson was charged with possession of >5 but <50 pounds of marijuana; he pleaded guilty and received deferred sentence with community supervision.
Police obtained a court order under Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 18.21 to surreptitiously install a GPS tracker on Ferguson’s silver 2000 Ford F150 based on a CI who (1) identified Ferguson, (2) bought and sold wholesale hydroponic marijuana from him within the prior month, and (3) exchanged texts arranging a felony-level delivery.
GPS data showed Ferguson traveled to Katy, TX, stopped ~1 hour, returned to College Station and made brief stops at apartment complexes; officers also conducted a curbside “trash pull” at Ferguson’s residence that yielded marijuana, paraphernalia, and a receipt with Ferguson’s name/address.
Using the CI info and trash-pull results (and incorporating GPS-derived movements), officers obtained a search warrant for Ferguson’s residence and vehicles; Ferguson was later stopped while driving the pickup and large quantities of marijuana were found.
Ferguson moved to suppress, arguing the GPS installation/search was illegal (relying on Jones) and that the warrant lacked probable cause to stop/search the vehicle when it was off the curtilage. The trial court denied suppression; the court of appeals affirmed.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument (Ferguson)	Defendant's Argument (State)	Held
Whether evidence was fruit of illegal GPS installation	GPS installation/search was an unlawful Fourth Amendment search (Jones), so subsequent evidence must be suppressed	Independent, lawful information (CI, trash pull) sufficed; even if GPS info tainted, warrant affidavit without it established probable cause	Court affirmed: purged affidavit still established probable cause; suppression not required
Whether affidavit information was stale	CI information was too old (delay ~7 weeks) to support probable cause	Drug trafficking was ongoing; facts showed recent and continuous activity defeating staleness claim	Court affirmed: information described ongoing activity, so not stale
Whether trash-pull was tainted by GPS use	Trash-pull flowed from GPS surveillance and thus was tainted	Trash was left at curb outside curtilage; no reasonable expectation of privacy and CI independently justified inspecting trash	Court affirmed: Greenwood allows warrantless seizure of curbside trash; trash evidence admissible
Whether warrant authorized search of vehicle off-curtilage	Warrant only justified searching vehicle when within curtilage of residence	Warrant expressly described the pickup as part of “Said Suspected Place” and authorized vehicles under suspect's control without curtilage limitation	Court affirmed: warrant authorized search of the pickup without curtilage limitation

United States v. Jones, 565 U.S. 400 (installation of GPS on vehicle is a Fourth Amendment search)
Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690 (standard of review for warrant determinations)
Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213 (totality-of-the-circumstances test for probable cause)
Ventresca v. United States, 380 U.S. 102 (deference to magistrate on doubtful cases)
California v. Greenwood, 486 U.S. 35 (no reasonable expectation of privacy in curbside garbage)
Oliver v. United States, 466 U.S. 170 (definition and protection of curtilage)
McClintock v. State, 444 S.W.3d 15 (tainted affidavit material must be excised and remaining content evaluated)
Brown v. State, 605 S.W.2d 572 (warrant cannot be procured by use of illegally obtained information)
State v. Cuong Phu Lee, 463 S.W.3d 872 (ongoing criminal activity defeats staleness challenge)