When the FBI Comes Calling…®

February 18, 2005

Alleged smuggling ringleader again tries to take back guilty plea

Associated Press

An attorney for the alleged ringleader of a smuggling operation blamed for the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants is making a third attempt at withdrawing his client's guilty plea.

Attorney John LaGrappe's Thursday motion to withdraw Karla Patricia Chavez's guilty plea purportedly offers new evidence of possible bribery.

LaGrappe accuses Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Rodriguez of withholding evidence of a bribery investigation into a U.S. Border Patrol agent on duty the night of May 13-14, 2003, when a trailer packed with more than 74 illegal immigrants passed through the Sarita checkpoint.

Seventeen immigrants were found dead inside a sweltering tractor-trailer after it was abandoned in Victoria in May 2003. Two died later in what was the nation's deadliest human smuggling attempt.

In exchange for her guilty plea in June to a charge of conspiring to harbor and transport illegal immigrants in a manner that ultimately led to their deaths, all but one of 58 counts she faced were dropped. She is set to be sentenced May 2 and could get up to life in prison.

LaGrappe says a member of Chavez's organization, who was not indicted and is cooperating with the prosecution, told her that he bribed an official at the checkpoint north of Harlingen on May 13, 2003.

Neither LaGrappe nor Rodriguez can comment because of a gag order imposed by U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore.

Chavez's attorneys made similar allegations in two previous motions but were not able to produce evidence to support their allegations. This time, LaGrappe attached a memo from an internal investigation by Homeland Security naming a Border Patrol agent as a bribery suspect.

Also Thursday, a federal magistrate denied bond for three former fugitives accused of taking part in the smuggling attempt.

Victor Sanchez Rodriguez; his wife, Emma Sapata Rodriguez; and Rosa Sarrata Gonzalez, Sapata's half-sister, pleaded innocent.

All three face 58 counts of harboring and transporting illegal immigrants. Sanchez and Sapata also face two additional counts related to an accusation they held for ransom the 3-year-old son of a Honduran woman who survived the smuggling attempt.

All three could be sentenced to death if convicted. Federal law allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty in smuggling cases that result in death.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Calvin Botley denied bonds for the three because they had been fugitives from U.S. authorities since being indicted along with 11 other people. Sanchez, Sapata and Sarrata fled to Mexico but were later arrested and held there on similar smuggling charges along with a group of other people.

Last month, a Mexican federal judge dismissed the case, and the three were deported to the United States and arrested when they were returned to Houston last week.

The Mexican judge also dropped charges against another man wanted by U.S. authorities for the smuggling attempt, Octavio Torres Ortega. Torres, who says he's a Mexican citizen, is the only indicted defendant who remains a fugitive.

Investigators say Sanchez and Sapata operated one of the three smuggling cells from their home in Brownsville.

Botley set a trial date of April 18 for all three.

Jury selection in the trial of Tyrone Williams, accused of driving and abandoning the tractor-trailer, is set to begin Tuesday. He also faces 58 counts of harboring and transporting illegal immigrants.

Williams' attorneys filed a motion on Thursday saying their client waives his right to a jury, meaning U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore would decide if he was guilty or innocent. If Gilmore found him guilty of any charges that carry a possible death sentence, a jury would be chosen for that portion of the trial.

The U.S. Attorney's office did not wish to say if it would oppose the request because of a gag order in the case. Gilmore as well as prosecutors would have to agree to waive the jury, said Douglas McNabb, a Houston attorney who specializes in federal criminal defense and isn't connected to the case.

Gilmore did not immediately issue a ruling on the matter. Prosecutors have previously opposed a plan by Gilmore to have two juries in the case.


This article can also be found at Plainview Daily Herald and Click 2 Houston.