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October 02, 2006

Retrial of truck driver in deadly smuggling case to begin

Appeals court rejected earlier conviction of Tyrone Williams, who faces death penalty.

By Juan A. Lozano, Associated Press Writer

HOUSTON - An invalid verdict has given federal prosecutors a second chance to try a truck driver on all the charges he faced for his role in the nation's deadliest human smuggling attempt, including those that carry the death penalty.

A jury last year convicted Tyrone Williams on 38 counts in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants who were crammed into his airtight tractor-trailer during the May 2003 smuggling attempt.

Williams had faced the death penalty in the case but avoided it because the jury couldn't agree on what role Williams played in the crime. The jury deadlocked on 20 other counts. But the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the decision, saying the verdict didn't count because the jury failed to specify his role in the deadly smuggling attempt.

Jury selection in Williams' retrial is set to begin Tuesday with an initial jury pool of about 250 people.

The process could last up to two weeks; potential jurors will be questioned individually because of the possible death sentence.

The trial will be overseen by a new judge, Lee Rosenthal.

The 5th Circuit removed U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore from the case because of the case's "extraordinary history" and a busy docket.

Prosecutors and Gilmore had a contentious relationship in the first trial. Several rulings by Gilmore that went against prosecutors were overturned on appeal.

Williams is the only one of 14 people charged in the case who is facing the death penalty. He was indicted on 58 transporting, harboring and conspiracy counts, 20 of which are eligible for the death penalty.

The U.S. attorney's office declined to comment.

At a recent court hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Rodriguez described the immigrants in the tractor-trailer as hostages who were being tortured.

Authorities have said Williams was part of a smuggling ring that tried to transport more than 70 illegal immigrants from Mexico, Central America and the Dominican Republic in his airtight tractor-trailer.

As they traveled from South Texas to Houston, they began to succumb to the rising heat inside the trailer, which authorities estimate climbed to 173 degrees.

Survivors have said people inside took off their sweat-drenched clothes for relief and crowded around holes they punched in the truck so they could breathe. They also kicked out a signal light to try to get the attention of passing motorists.

Williams, a Jamaican citizen who lived in Schenectady, N.Y., abandoned the trailer at a truck stop near Victoria, about 100 miles southwest of Houston.

Seventeen immigrants, including a 5-year-old boy, were found dead in the trailer, and two died later. They all died from dehydration, overheating and suffocation.

"He knowingly and intentionally refused to open the doors to the trailer," Rodriguez said. "His refusal to open the doors was (an) act of violence."

Williams' attorney, Craig Washington, has said that 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.

Washington has argued that his client is being singled out for harsher punishment because he is black. Before the first trial, Washington appealed the race issue to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case.

Washington told the court in pre-trial hearings that he wanted to question potential jurors on their racial attitudes.

Rosenthal agreed but warned Washington not to refer to the case as "racially based selective prosecution."

Rodriguez said Williams faces a possible death sentence because he could have freed the immigrants. Federal law allows capital punishment in smuggling cases that result in death.

"Only Williams was able to prevent the deaths," he said.

Douglas McNabb, a Houston attorney who specializes in federal criminal defense, said he was surprised that the appeals court overturned the verdict from the first trial and was critical of the retrial, which will proceed while the case is being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"I think the government is being mean-spirited," McNabb said. "He was probably going to be sentenced to life because of the convictions on some of the counts, and in the federal system, life is life. There is no parole."

So far, seven people have been sentenced to prison in the case. Sentencings for three others are pending.

Charges against two were dismissed, and one man remains a fugitive.

Other defendants in smuggling deaths case

Here's a look at the status of the cases against the 13 other defendants who authorities say were members of the ring responsible for the 2003 smuggling attempt that resulted in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants:

Karla Patricia Chavez, the alleged ringleader, pleaded guilty to harboring and transporting illegal immigrants. Her attempts to rescind her guilty plea were denied. She was sentenced in May to more than 17 years in prison.

Fredy Giovanni Garcia-Tobar and Victor Jesus Rodriguez were convicted in December 2004 of various smuggling-related charges. Rodriguez was sentenced in July to 20 years and seven months. No sentencing date has been set for Garcia-Tobar.

Claudia Carrizales de Villa, who was on trial with Rodriguez and Garcia-Tobar, had her charges dismissed by U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore, who said prosecutors failed to prove the case. Carrizales was deported to Mexico because she was an illegal immigrant.

Victor Sanchez Rodriguez, Emma Sapata Rodriguez and Rosa Sarrata Gonzalez were sentenced in September after being convicted in February of conspiracy to harbor and transport illegal immigrants. Sanchez was sentenced to 23 years and four months in prison; Sapata was sentenced to 15 years; and Sarrata was sentenced to 12 years and seven months. Sanchez and Sapata are Rodriguez's parents. Sanchez, Sapata and Sarrata had fled to Mexico after the smuggling attempt and had faced similar smuggling-related charges there. But those charges were dismissed, and they were returned to the United States.

Abelardo Flores, Fatima Holloway and Norma Gonzalez Sanchez pleaded guilty to various charges related to the smuggling attempt. Flores is set to be sentenced on Dec. 11. No sentencing date has been set for Holloway. Sanchez in February was sentenced to 30 months in prison. Because she had served 33 months after her arrest, she was released.

Juan Carlos Don Juan was sentenced to 14 months he had already served for helping to transport and conceal a 3-year-old Honduran son of one of the survivors in an attempt to extort money from the boy's relatives.

Erica Cardenas had charges against her dismissed. Cardenas, Don Juan's girlfriend, was charged in the extortion attempt.

Octavio Torres Ortega was arrested in Mexico on charges connected with the smuggling deaths. But a Mexican federal judge dismissed the charges. He remains a fugitive from U.S. authorities.

This article can also be found in the Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star Telegram, Austin American-statesman, Houston Chronicle, Click 2 Houston.com, and abc13.com.