United States v. Hubert Youte


Case: 17-13128 Date Filed: 04/16/2019 Page: 1 of 9 [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 17-13128 Non-Argument Calendar ________________________ D.C. Docket No. 1:17-cr-20178-KMW-1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus HUBERT YOUTE, Defendant-Appellant. ________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida ________________________ (April 16, 2019) Before MARCUS, ROSENBAUM, and BRANCH, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Hubert Youte appeals his conviction for making a false statement to a U.S. customs official. He raises arguments about the reasonableness of the search of his Case: 17-13128 Date Filed: 04/16/2019 Page: 2 of 9 shipboard quarters, the adequacy of his Miranda warnings, and the sufficiency of the evidence to convict him. Because we conclude that these arguments fail, we affirm. Youte, a national of Haiti whose first language is Haitian Creole, was an able seaman on board a freighter docked in Miami. When U.S. customs officials arrived to conduct a routine outbound inspection of the freighter, customs agent Angel Rodriguez remembered Youte from previous inspections and thought his demeanor seemed odd this time. According to Rodriguez’s later testimony, Youte looked upset that customs officials were on board. Rodriguez questioned Youte in Youte’s cabin in English and had no difficulty conversing. After Youte told Rodriguez that everything in the cabin was his, Rodriguez asked him if he was carrying more than $10,000. Youte said no. When asked how much money he did have, Youte produced about $2,000 from a pillowcase. Asked if he had any more money, Youte produced $42 from his shirt pocket. Asked again, he produced $200 from a pair of jeans lying nearby. Rodriguez then asked three more times if Youte had disclosed all of the money he had, and Youte said yes. Rodriguez and his partner searched Youte’s cabin and discovered a Tide detergent box, taped shut with a lot of clear tape. They cut the box open and found it contained $36,930 in cash. Youte immediately began to repeat, “Talk to Jeff,” and the officers escorted him off the ship. 2 Case: 17-13128 Date Filed: 04/16/2019 Page: 3 of 9 In the customs office, Youte was interviewed by three agents including Jacque Philippe, who is a native speaker of Haitian Creole but is not trained as a translator. Youte told Philippe that he did not know how to write, that he did not know how to speak English, and that he only spoke Creole. Philippe then read Youte his Miranda rights in Creole by extemporaneously translating the English waiver form, since the Creole form was unavailable. Philippe paused several times to ask Youte whether he understood; Youte said he did and marked the waiver form. Youte then agreed to speak with the agents. He told them that he knew that the Tide box contained money and that he was bringing it to Haiti at the request of a former coworker named Jeff, who was flying to Haiti and planned to receive the box from Youte there. ...

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