Thread: FL-Illegal imm gets 6-year sentence in fatal excavator crash

Illegal immigrant gets 6-year sentence in fatal excavator crash



By STEPHEN THOMPSON

Published: September 14, 2009

CLEARWATER - A 20-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico was sentenced to six years in prison Friday, about a month after he pleaded guilty to killing a pickup driver by driving his construction vehicle the wrong way down U.S. 19 in Pinellas Park.

On the night of April 21, 2007, Agustin Palma Trejo was driving a track hoe excavator the wrong way – and without its lights on – in the 11300 block of U.S. 19 in Pinellas Park, police said.

The pickup driver, Donald Cochran, 58, of Largo, was in the oncoming lane. He tried swerving his pickup around the approaching digger, but the bucket portion of Palma Trejo's vehicle struck the truck, causing it to spin and flip 300 feet before stopping, police said.

Cochran was pulled out of the wreckage but was dead.

A 60-year-old woman at the wheel of a Buick swerved to avoid impact with the pickup and collided head-on with a traffic attenuator attached to the end of a concrete barricade in the road to divide lanes. She was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

Outside court, Assistant State Attorney Scott Rosenwasser said Palma Trejo was working at the time of the wreck for Wave Technologies Communications, which had been contracted by Verizon to remove piping.

After he serves his time in prison, Palma Trejo is expected to be deported to Mexico.

Palma Trejo pleaded guilty Aug. 10 to a charge of manslaughter. That charge, Rosenwasser said Friday outside court, was filed due to the recklessness of Palma Trejo's driving – specifically, his driving the wrong way down a road at night with no lights on one of the busiest roads in Pinellas County, the prosecutor said.

Palma Trejo's defense attorney, Bryant Camareno, told Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Thane Covert that Palma Trejo, then 18, was doing what he had been ordered to do by Wave Technologies Communications, even though he was in the country illegally. He was asked to move the track hoe, and did so without any other employees around, according to a woman who spoke on behalf of the Palma Trejo family in court.

Speaking through an interpreter, Palma Trejo asked that the Cochran family forgive him, but also said what happened was an accident. "I know what it is to lose a father because I have lost one, because I lost my father at a young age, and I need to be forgiven," the interpreter said.

The family was having none of it.

"At least he can go home eventually," Ron Wilson, Cochran's stepson, told Covert. "Don, he will never have that option.

"[Palma Trejo] shouldn't have even been in this country in the first place," Wilson said.

Cochran's widow, Ruth, is suing Wave Technologies Communications.

Camareno was interested in a sentence of about three years. Palma Trejo, who was in the United States to earn money for his family in Mexico, had shown remorse and was cooperative with police after the wreck, the attorney said.

The Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office asked for 111 months or roughly 9.1 years.

Covert noted that both the defendant and the victim had similar characters, with both working to support their respective families. "They probably would have been pretty good friends," the judge said.



http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/sep/14 ... -breaking/

"Cochran's widow, Ruth, is suing Wave Technologies Communications."

GOOD, SUE FOR BILLIONS OF DOLLARS -- THESE COMPANIES NEED TO HAVE THEIR "PANTS SUED OFF" DRASTICALLY UNTIL THEY ARE FORCED OUT OF BUSINESS!!!!!!!

Why was he even behind the wheel? I bet he doesn't have a driver's license. What kind of experience could he possibly have to of qualified for that job in the first place?

Dixie.

Originally Posted by American-ized

"Cochran's widow, Ruth, is suing Wave Technologies Communications."

GOOD, SUE FOR BILLIONS OF DOLLARS -- THESE COMPANIES NEED TO HAVE THEIR "PANTS SUED OFF" DRASTICALLY UNTIL THEY ARE FORCED OUT OF BUSINESS!!!!!!!

good for her, i hope she bankrupts the company

Dixie wrote: "Why was he even behind the wheel?"

Well, you and I know, it wasn't by "divine intervention!"

[/quote]Cochran's widow, Ruth, is suing Wave Technologies Communications.

DO NOT stop there!!!! How many times have we seen VERIZON involved with this same crap, all over the US!