United States v. Brito-Rodriguez

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
• Decided: May 25, 2000
• Docket: 99-50728
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT ____________________

No. 99-50728 Summary Calendar ____________________

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff-Appellee, versus

ISRAEL BRITO-RODRIGUEZ,

Defendant-Appellant.

_________________________________________________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas (P-99-CR-78-ALL) _________________________________________________________________ May 16, 2000

Before SMITH, BARKSDALE, and PARKER, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:*

Israel Brito-Rodriguez (Brito), convicted of possessing

firearms while an alien illegally in the United States, contests

the denial of his motion to suppress evidence found in the vehicle

in which he and his wife were riding when stopped by Border Patrol

Agents.

Brito does not challenge the legality of the stop.

Furthermore, Brito does not challenge the court’s holding that the

search of the vehicle was valid as incident to his lawful arrest.

See New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454, 462-63 (1981).

* Pursuant to 5TH CIR. R. 47.5, the Court has determined that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5TH CIR. R. 47.5.4. Instead, Brito claims no evidence supported the Agents

reasonably believed his wife had authority to consent to the search

of the vehicle. However, one of the Agents testified Mrs. Brito

told him “it was her mother’s vehicle”, which “had been given to

her care”. And, Mrs. Brito alone had access to, and control over,

it, Brito having already been arrested for being an illegal alien

and placed in another Agent’s vehicle. Because Mrs. Brito was

authorized to consent to the search, the court did not err by

overruling Brito’s suppression motion. See, e.g., United States v.

Koehler, 790 F.2d 1256, 1259-60 (5th Cir. 1986).

AFFIRMED

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