United States v. Brito-Rodriguez

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT
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No. 99-50728
Summary Calendar
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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this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except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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