10 years for coyote charged in immigrant death
Comments 1
March 15, 2010 9:31 PM



A Houston immigrant smuggler blamed for the death of one of his clients during a 2008 attempt to evade arrest pleaded guilty to murder charges March. 9.

State District Judge Ricardo Rodriguez sentenced Arturo Vega Cardenas, 25, to 10 years in prison as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors. He will serve that punishment concurrently with a nine-year federal sentence he received in February after pleading guilty to harboring illegal immigrants.

Cardenas drove off the road Feb. 13, 2008, in an attempt to escape U.S. Border Patrol agents near the unincorporated community of Puerto Rico, east of San Isidro. Several people fled from the scene of the wreck, but Jose Adolfo Padilla, 52, died from head trauma suffered during the crash.

Federal investigators tracked Cardenas’ vehicle back to a stash house in Mission where 15 other undocumented immigrants were found.


http://www.themonitor.com/news/charged- ... death.html