Driver charged in fatal southwest Kansas pickup crash

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/my ... 989220.htm

Posted on Wed, Mar. 01, 2006
Driver charged in fatal southwest Kansas pickup crash
Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. - The driver of a pickup truck that crashed in southwest Kansas while carrying 18 other Mexican nationals has been charged in federal court with transporting illegal immigrants, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Tuesday.

Three people were killed Feb. 21 when the F-150 Ford pickup truck rolled in a ditch, after its left rear wheel came off on U.S. 56 near Rolla. Sixteen others, including the driver, were injured. All had been released from hospitals as of Tuesday.

The driver, Fernando Tello Del Pilar, 22, of Veracruz, Mexico, was charged with felony transporting illegal immigrants during which death and serious injury occurred. The driver initially gave a false name to authorities, who identified him after running his fingerprints and photograph through a crime data base.

Tello Del Pillar had been arrested by immigration officers in 1999 but was returned to Mexico.

When the truck crashed on Feb. 21, nine people were in the truck's cab - four on the front seat, four in the back seat with one on the floor between the seats, according to the Kansas Highway Patrol. The remaining 10 passengers were in the truck's bed, which was covered with a camper shell.

"The criminal complaint charges the defendant with human trafficking," U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren said in a news release. "He hauled 19 unrestrained human beings - all of them in the United States illegally - in a pickup truck designed to carry five."

According to the complaint, Tello Del Pilar was to have been paid $1,500 total by an associate in South Carolina for driving 18 Mexican nationals from a motel in Phoenix, Ariz., to various places in the southeastern U.S., including Kentucky and South Carolina, where he knew they could get work.

He admitted knowing all the passengers in his vehicle were in the United States illegally and took responsibility for the accident, according to the complaint.

His first appearance is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald Bostwick.

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/14067837.htm

Posted on Fri, Mar. 10, 2006

Driver indicted in crash that killed 3 illegal immigrants


A grand jury meeting in Wichita indicted the driver of a pickup that crashed in southwest Kansas, killing three of its 19 occupants.

U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren announced this morning that Fernando Tello Del Pilar has been charged with human trafficking violations.

The counts include one count of unlawfully transporting illegal aliens in the United States for private financial gain during which a death occurred; one count of unlawfully transporting illegal aliens in the United States for private financial gain during which serious injuries occurred; one count of making a false statement to a federal agent; and one count of aggravated identity theft.

The indictment followed original charges filed on Feb. 28.

Del Pilar was driving illegal aliens in a Ford F-150 extended-cab pickup on Feb. 12 in Morton County. Ten days later, the indictment says, he used a false name to identify himself to an agent of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He also used another person's identity.

The defendant initially was charged Feb. 28, 2006, by criminal complaint.

If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of up to life in prison or the death penalty and a fine up to $250,000 on the count involving death; up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000 on the count involving serious injury; a maximum penalty of 5 years and a fine up to $250,000 on the charge of making a false statement; and a mandatory 2-year sentence consecutive to any other sentence on the identity theft charge. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Anderson is prosecuting.

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/15612266.htm

Posted on Tue, Sep. 26, 2006

Driver in fatal accident gets 57 months


A Mexican citizen who was driving a truck that overturned in February near Rolla in southwest Kansas, killing three people, has been sentenced to 57 months with no parole in federal prison.

Fernando Tello Del Pilar, 22, was sentenced Monday in Wichita during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Monti Belot.

The three people killed in the accident were in the U.S. illegally.

"The defense made the argument for a lesser sentence that Fernando Tello Del Pilar did not know the truck he was driving had mechanical problems and was unsafe to operate," U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren said in a prepared statement.

"He knew, however, that he was unlawfully transporting illegal aliens," Melgren said. "He also knew that the Ford F-150 pickup he was driving was not designed to safely transport 19 people."

Pilar pleaded guilty in June to one count of unlawfully transporting illegal aliens resulting in a death.

In his plea, he admitted that on Feb. 15, 2006, he picked up 19 illegal aliens in Phoenix and transported them in a 1997 Ford F-150 pickup. He agreed to take them to destinations in the Southeast including Atlanta and Myrtle Beach, S.C.

At about 6:40 a.m. Feb. 21, 2006, he was driving east on U.S. 56 near Rolla, when a rear wheel on the vehicle locked up as a result of the loss of differential gear fluid.

He lost control of the pickup, which tumbled end-over-end, ejecting all occupants, nine of whom were in the passenger compartment, and 11 of whom were unrestrained in the bed of the truck under an aluminum camper shield. Three persons died in the crash.

"This was a worst-case scenario that points to the inherent dangers of this form of human smuggling," Melgren said. "In case after case, we see smugglers driven by a desire for profit charging undocumented aliens for transportation in unsafe conditions."