When the FBI Comes Calling…®
March 8, 2005Opening statements set for smuggling deaths trial
By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press Writer The Associated Press
HOUSTON (AP) _ Survivors of the nation's deadliest human smuggling attempt have said they pounded and screamed as they tried to let Tyrone Williams know they were dying inside his sweltering tractor-trailer.
Williams didn't let them out for four more hours as he transported them from South Texas in May 2003, prosecutors said. By then, 17 of the more than 70 ill! egal immigrants inside had died from dehydration, hyperthermia and suffocation, including a 5-year-old boy. Two others died later.
Opening arguments were set for Tuesday in Williams' much-delayed trial.
Williams is the only one of 14 defendants in the case who could receive the death penalty if convicted. His attorneys have argued that's because he is black, and argued all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to get prosecutors to give specific reasons they singled Williams out for the death penalty. The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the appeal.
Prosecutors have said generally Williams faces the punishment because he alone had the power to free the immigrants. Federal law allows the death penalty in fatal smuggling cases.
Authorities say Williams, 34, a Jamaican citizen who lives in Schenectady, N.Y., was hired by a smuggling ring to transport the illegal immigrants in his hot, airless tractor-trailer.
Williams abandoned the trailer at ! a truck stop near Victoria, about 100 miles southwest of Houston, afte r the immigrants began to succumb to the deadly heat inside, prosecutors say.
He was indicted on 58 counts of harboring and transporting illegal immigrants.
Douglas McNabb, a Houston federal criminal defense lawyer who isn't connected to the case, said the key to Williams' defense will be convincing the jury of seven women and five men that he didn't know the immigrants were dying in his vehicle.
"He will have to show he wasn't aware the conditions were as bad as they were," he said.
Williams' trial had been postponed four times since its original Jan. 5 start date because of the appeals over the possible death penalty.
The trial could last six to eight weeks.
This article can also be found at San Jose Mercury News, ABC News, Miami Herald, IN-Forum News, Hearld Sun, Dan Diego Union Tribune, KTRK, Times Daily, Oregon Live, Sarasota Herald, Guardian (UK), Times Picayune, Sierra Times, Lexington Dispatch, Click 2 Houston, Wired News, Penn Live, Wiles Barre Times, Monterey County Hearld, Fort Wayne News Sentinel, Columbus Ledger, Tuscaloosa News, Worecester Telegram, San Luis Obispo Tribune, Contra Costa Times, Bradenton Herald, Myrtle Beach Sun News, Akron Beacon Jounal, Macon Telegram, Grand Forks Herald, Duluth News Tribune, Pioneer Press, Charlotte Observer, Fort Worth Star Telegram, Fort Wayne Jounal Gazette, Wilmington Morning News, The Ledger, Centre Daily Times, Kansas City Star, San Jose Mercury, Biloxi Sun Herald, 1010Wins, Dateline Alabama, Netster, and The Daily Comet.