Searches Within the Curtilage of a Home

• Warrantless Searches of Structures Within the Curtilage of a Home
• Exigent Circumstances

The Fourth Amendment’s restrictions of warrantless searches of a residence extend to other structures within the curtilage of the home.  Whether exigent circumstances justify a warrantless search depends on the circumstances known to the officer at the time of the search.  The persistent odor of smoke, with no actual fire, does not allow for the warrantless search of a cabinet found inside a shed within the curtilage of a home.

A Milpitas Fire Department captain was a part of a crew that responded to defendant Joseph Nunes’ home one afternoon.  Although the 911 call indicated that there was a structure fire, with fire coming from the house, nothing was found to be going on when the fire department got there.  The house did not appear to be on fire.  Neighbors, however, told the fire captain that they had recently seen a plume of smoke coming from the backyard.  Police at the scene found no one to be home.  So the fire captain opened a side gate and entered the backyard.  In the backyard, the captain could smell smoke in the air; a smell, however, that was not consistent with someone cooking.  (Ha!  He’s never smelled my cooking.)  Looking around the backyard for the purpose of confirming there was no imminent danger, the captain could not find any active fire.  Still smelling smoke “around the entire backyard,” however, the fire captain and his crew continued to look for its source.  All they found were some test tubes, chemistry equipment, and a burned up homemade toy rocket.  Also in the backyard was a closed shed.  Although no smoke was coming from the shed, and despite the fact that the smell did not seem to originate from there, the captain—wanting “to make sure everything was clear”—opened the shed and looked inside.  Inside the shed was a metal cabinet.  Despite there ....