light to aid it. Haas did indeed locate a high heat source in Kyllos home with the Agema 210 and noted that Kyllos home showed much warmer than the other two houses in the triplex (Find Law). This indicated the presence of lights used to grow marijuana. This information was forwarded to William Elliot, an agent of the United States Bureau of Land Management. Elliot had already subpoenaed Kyllos utility records as Kyllo was already under investigation for the production of marijuana. With the information gathered by the use of the Agema 210, Elliot inferred that the high levels of heat emission indicated the presence of high intensity lights used to grow marijuana indoors (Find Law). Elliot presented this information to a judge and was issued a search warrant. In searching Kyllos home the Bureau of Land Management found more than one hundred marijuana plants, weapons and drug paraphernalia. Kyllo was then indicted for manufacturing marijuana and filed a motion to suppress the evidence on the grounds that it was obtained illegally in accordance with the 4th Amendment. The district court denied Kyllos motion to suppress and he entered into a conditional guilty plea. Kyllo was sentenced to prison for 63 months. Kyllo appealed the denial of the suppression of motion, challenging the warrantless scan of his home with a thermal imager. In 1994, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed whether the warrant used to search the home of Kyllo was based on knowingly and recklessly false information in the affidavit for the warrant (OTDNWU). The court reversed and remanded the decision of the district court and sent the case back to hold an evidentiary hearing on the capabilities of the Afema 210. Again the district court denied Kyllos motion to suppress with the conclusion that warrantless searches of homes with the Agema are permissible. Kyllo then appealed again in 1998 to the 9th Circuit. The court of appeals found, in a 2-1 decis...
