When the FBI Comes Calling…®
March 22, 2005
Jury deliberations in immigrant smuggling deaths drag into 2nd day (2nd Edition)
By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press Writer The Associated Press
HOUSTON (AP) - Jurors deliberating in the trial of a truck driver facing the death penalty for his role in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants asked the judge Tuesday if they needed to decide whether the man intended to harm or endanger the victims during the smuggling attempt.
U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore responded that jurors needed only to decide whether Tyrone Williams caused the immigrants to be placed in harm's way, regardless of his intentions. The jurors have been deliberating since Monday morning.
"That is the issue at hand. I understand what they are struggling with," Gilmore said. She denied another jury request for a dictionary.
Williams faces 58 counts of conspiracy, harboring and transporting immigrants. He is accused of ignoring the cries of more than 70 immigrants packed inside the stifling, airtight trailer he was using to transport them through south Texas in May 2003. Seventeen people died inside the trailer; two others died later.
Prosecutors said Williams abandoned the trailer at a truck stop about 100 miles southwest of Houston. He was paid about $7,500 to transport the immigrants.
Williams' attorney, Craig Washington, has said his client was guilty of transporting the immigrants, but that other members of the smuggling ring were responsible for the deaths because they loaded the trailer with too many people.
Williams, 34, a Jamaican citizen who lives in Schenectady, N.Y., is the only one of 14 defendants in the case facing the death penalty. Federal law allows capital punishment in fatal smuggling cases.
This article can also be found at Denton Record Chroncile, Times Picayune, SierraTimes.com, and Centre Daily Times.