June 12, 2009
Second Haitian citizen arrested in alleged smuggling operation

Ten people died when boat capsized off the coast of Boynton Beach
By Erika Pesantes and Mike Clary
6:47 PM EDT, June 9, 2009

WEST PALM BEACH - A second suspect has been arrested in the sinking of a boat and the deaths of 10 Haitians who drowned off the Boynton Inlet last month.

Haitian national Jean Morange Nelson, 32, was charged Monday with conspiracy and alien smuggling in the May 13 incident.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Jimmy Metellus, 33, on the same charges just days after the tragedy. He and Nelson were the two captains who left the Bahamas with the migrants before the boat capsized.

One survivor told federal agents that his family paid $4,000 to ferry him to the United States. The boat experienced mechanical problems en route and the captains stopped by a house in the Bahamas to get it repaired. But it still failed.



The search-and-rescue operation by the U.S. Coast Guard began after a good Samaritan spotted the 30-foot vessel about 16 miles from the coast. Fourteen migrants survived, in addition to the two suspects.

The 10 dead included two men, six women, an infant and an unborn 8-month-old fetus. Nelson's detention hearing is scheduled for Monday. Metellus will be arraigned on July 1.

If convicted on the top charge of human smuggling involving death, Nelson and Metellus could face a maximum sentence of death.

In another smuggling case, a 28-year-old Hialeah man was sentenced to three years in prison after being convicted of trying to smuggle eight migrants near the Boynton Inlet from the Bahamas earlier this year.

Jovel Dominguez-Hernandez also was placed under two years of supervised release as part of the sentence handed down Monday by U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth A. Marra in West Palm Beach.

According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators, Dominguez-Hernandez was the captain of a boat called the Angelina, spotted Jan. 26 running without lights near the Boynton Beach Inlet.

As deputies approached, the vessel turned and ran aground, investigators said, and Dominguez-Hernandez and eight passengers scattered on shore.

Dominguez-Hernandez was arrested and charged with smuggling people, and his passengers -- seven Haitians and a man from Sierra Leone -- were detained.

Dominguez-Hernandez later admitted to federal agents that he brought the migrants to the United States for a total of $3,000.

Erika Pesantes can be reached at epesantes@SunSentinel.com

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