SUMMARY OF A CASE INVOLVING 4TH AMENDMENT RIGHTS
At about 6:08am, on October 4, 2009, Trisha Oliver, a resident of Cranston Rhode Island called 911 reporting that her six-year-old son, Marco Nieves, stopped breathing. Emergency authorities took Marco to Hasbro Children's Hospital, where he was found to be in full cardiac arrest. He later died after 11 hours attempt to save his life. At about 6:20am, Sgt. Michael Kite of the Cranston Police Department had arrived at the apartment, where he found Oliver, her boyfriend Michael Patino, and their 14-month-old daughter, Jazlyn Oliver grieving the loss of their loved one. Officer Kite noticed a few odd things about the apartment where Marco suffered his cardiac arrest. Among these things was a cell phone on the kitchen counter, a couple of stripped beds and linens on the floor, a trash can with, dark brown vomit in a toilet, and, crucially, a cell phone on the kitchen counter. Kite picked up the cell phone, and it was at that point—in the just-released opinion of a Rhode Island state court—that police proceeded to mangle a murder case and violate Patino's Fourth Amendment rights by viewing text messages without a warrant. Officer Kite viewed a text message on the phone, which was owned by Trisha Oliver, reading "Wat if I got 2 take him 2 da hospital wat do I say and dos marks on his neck omg." The message was sent from Oliver to Patino, although the sending of the message apparently failed. There were other messages on the phone "with profane language and references to punching Marco—three times—the hardest of which was in the stomach," according to court records. Patino was arrested and charged with murder. Kite claims he picked up the phone because it was "beeping," and that he thought it might help get in touch with the boy's birth father.

THE COURT’S DECISION
Later on during the discovery phase of the case, Rhode