CHARLOTTE AMALIE — A Guyanese auto mechanic admitted in federal court he was an aggravated felon who illegally re-entered the United States faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, authorities said.
Warren Michael Whyte, of Georgetown, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ruth Miller in U.S. District Court and entered a guilty plea to the charge of illegal re-entry of removed alien, U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert said today.
According to court documents, on March 14, 2020, a U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation officer received information from a credible source of information (SOI) that a person who was previously deported from the United States was working at an auto body repair shop called “Inter-Island AutoWorld” in the Smith Bay area of St. Thomas.
Criminal and immigration records checks were completed and revealed that on June 18, 2002, Warren Whyte was ordered removed from the United States by the U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service (ICE) to his native country of Guyana as an aggravated felon due to his prior felony conviction.
Court records show that on March 17, 2020, at approximately 7:00 a.m., an ICE officer observed an individual who appeared to be the person identified in the picture as Warren Whyte.
On that day Officer Williams followed Whyte and conducted a traffic stop on his vehicle in the area of Hometown grocery store on VI Route 40, “and he freely admitted that his name was Warren Whyte,” authorities said.
Whyte was taken into custody and transported to the ICE office on Crown Mountain, where “a biometric search of Warren Michael Whyte’s fingerprints were taken and revealed a positive match to his prior record of deportation,” according to the affidavit.
Warren Michael Whyte, was previously deported to Guyana in June 2002, but re-entered the country undetected at some point, court records indicate.
Whyte was released on a personal recognizance bond prior to his trial.
This case was investigated by the U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Juan Albino.