Overcoming an initial deadlock, a US federal jury in Houston on Wednesday convicted three South Texans in a botched scheme that killed 19 illegal immigrants sealed in a trailer bound north from the Mexican border in 2003.
Eleven people have now been convicted in the case, the nation's deadliest human-smuggling disaster. Fourteen were charged after the trailer, crammed with at least 74 people from Mexico and Central America, was found abandoned at a truck stop in Victoria, Texas, on May 14, 2003, with 17 bodies inside. Two more victims died later.
The trial featured gripping accounts from survivors, one of whom, Jose Juan Roldan-Castro, testified that the three-and-a-half hours in the trailer felt like "centuries." He described tearing holes in the trailer in a desperate bid for air.
The three defendants in the current trial, Victor Sanchez Rodriguez, 58, and his wife, Emma Sapata Rodriguez, 59, of Brownsville; and her half-sister, Rosa Maria Serrata, 51, of San Benito, were together found guilty of 35 of 43 counts involving the feeding, sheltering and transporting of the victims and survivors, and could each face up to 20 years in prison. Judge Vanessa Gilmore set sentencing for May 1.
The government charged that by harboring the immigrants, the trio shared responsibility with those who directed the smuggling operation and with the truck driver.
It appeared Tuesday that the three-week-long trial had come apart. Jurors reported themselves deadlocked. Gilmore read them a standard exhortation to keep deliberating, and their next note, Wednesday morning, announced their agreement on verdicts.
Because the jury found that none of the immigrants "died as a result of the conduct" of the defendants, the maximum penalty was 20 years instead of life in prison.
The Rodriguezes and Serrata, all American citizens, fled to Mexico after the incident, but were arrested there and returned for trial.
Their convictions came almost a year after the driver of the truck, Tyrone Williams, 35, of Schenectady, New York, was found guilty on smuggling charges.
But jurors deadlocked on questions of his culpability, and the government is seeking to retry him on all charges.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
Japan is to downgrade its description of ties with China from “one of its most important” in an annual diplomatic report, according to a draft reviewed by Reuters, as relations with Beijing worsen. This year’s Diplomatic Bluebook, which Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government is expected to approve next month, would instead describe China as an important neighbor and the relationship as “strategic” and “mutually beneficial.” The draft cites a series of confrontations with Beijing over the past year, including export controls on rare earths, radar lock-ons targeting Japanese military aircraft and increased pressure around Taiwan. The shift in tone underscores a deterioration
A retired US colonel behind a privately financed rocket launch site in the Dominican Republic sees the project as a response to China’s dominance of the space race in Latin America. Florida-based Launch on Demand is slated to begin building a US$600 million facility in a remote region near the border with Haiti late this year. The project is designed to meet surging demand for the heavy-lift rockets needed to put clusters of satellites into orbit. It is also an answer to China’s growing presence in the region, said CEO Burton Catledge, a former commander of the US Air Force’s 45th Operations
Germany is considering Australia’s Ghost Bat robot fighter as it looks to select a combat drone to modernize its air force, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said yesterday. Germany has said it wants to field hundreds of uncrewed fighter jets by 2029, and would make a decision soon as it considers a range of German, European and US projects developing so-called “collaborative combat aircraft.” Australia has said it will integrate the Ghost Bat, jointly developed by Boeing Australia and the Royal Australian Air Force, into its military after a successful weapons test last year. After inspecting the Ghost Bat in Queensland yesterday,
RSS