Four years behind bars for man who loaned SUV to illegal immigrants' smuggler
By Pamela Manson
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 08/06/2008 01:14:05 PM MDT

Posted: 1:13 PM- A man who loaned his vehicle to transport undocumented immigrants for a trip that ended in eight deaths was sentenced Wednesday to four years in prison.

Bruno Garcia-Lopez, 31 - who also used the names Neftali Espinoza and Adolfo Manuel Espinoza - had pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the transportation of aliens in the United States. He admitted that he allowed his Chevrolet Suburban to be used to take immigrants in the country illegally from Arizona to other places.

The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell in Salt Lake City.

According to a charging document, co-defendant Rigoberto Salas-Lopez was driving the vehicle from Phoenix to St. Louis on April 17, 2007, when it rolled on U.S. Highway 191 south of Bluff. Eight of the 14 people on board were killed.

Investigators say the vehicle's occupants, four from Mexico and 10 from Guatemala, were all in the United States illegally. Salas-Lopez was sentenced in June to four years in prison.

Garcia-Lopez, who was not in the Suburban at the time of the accident, will be deported after he serves his sentence.
http://www.sltrib.com:80/news/ci_10116168