Thread: Driver in deadly smuggling gets additional sentence

Aug. 23, 2007, 12:20PM
Driver in deadly smuggling gets additional sentence

By CINDY GEORGE
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5077763.html

Already serving a life sentence for his role in the 2003 smuggling deaths of 19 illegal immigrants, Tyrone Mapletoft Williams Jr. was sentenced this morning to 53 years for the entire scheme and for placing the lives of survivors in jeopardy.

U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal also fined the long-haul trucker from Schenectady, N.Y., $150,000.

Williams was found guilty last year for his role in the Victoria tragedy, a botched smuggling attempt that led to horrific suffering for as many as 100 illegal immigrants sealed in his truck's refrigeration trailer. Williams abandoned his load at a Victoria truck stop in May 2003 after discovering the compartment had become a death trap. To get air, some passengers had punched holes in the trailer. Others sucked perspiration from clothes for hydration. The victims — including a 5-year-old and four teenagers — died from dehydration and suffocation.

Last year, in Williams' second trial, jurors chose life imprisonment for the 19 counts representing the victims and asked Rosenthal to choose a term of years on a conspiracy charge. And Williams, 36, a legal Jamaican immigrant, faced additional time in prison for the remaining 38 harboring and transporting counts.

This morning, Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Rodriguez dropped 19 of the 38 counts for "duplicity," he said, because Williams was harboring and transporting at the same time, thus "they sanction the same event."

"As a result, we decided to dismiss one set," he said, adding that it would have little effect on the final sentence. "Effectively, it has no bearing."

An hour into the hearing, Rosenthal asked whether Williams would speak on his own behalf before sentencing. Lead defense lawyer Craig Washington said he had not discussed speaking to the judge with his client. Rosenthal called a 30-minute break for Washington to talk with Williams. Williams declined to speak.

Williams was the first person to face a death sentence under a 1994 federal smuggling law. This year, he has remained at the federal detention center in downtown Houston.

Prosecutors asked Rosenthal for another life sentence as punishment for the pain and suffering of survivors. Defense lawyers requested an added year or two. This part of the sentence could have been very important if the first life sentences are overturned on appeal.

A presentence report prepared by a federal probation officer is under seal, but objections to the report by lawyers on both sides shed light on its contents.

According to papers filed by Rodriguez, the probation office's suggested sentence is 9 to 11 years.

A decade more "does not adequately reflect the seriousness of Williams' offenses ... or the number of deaths that occurred as a result of this offense," the prosecutor writes.

In his objections, Washington says Williams deserves just 15 to 21 months because he accepted responsibility by giving a hospital interview that led to the apprehension of his 13 co-defendants.

"If Williams had not cooperated from the very beginning, it is quite possible that most, if not all, of the other defendants would never have been apprehended and prosecuted," Washington writes.

In his 2005 trial, a jury convicted Williams on 38 transporting counts, but the jury deadlocked on the 20 other charges. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the verdict because the jurors failed to specify Williams' role in the crime.

Though he did not mastermind the scheme, Williams was the lone defendant to face the death penalty.

Prosecutors argued that, unlike others, Williams had the sole power to free the immigrants.

Fatima Holloway, who was riding in the cab with Williams — and became the government's star witness by testifying against him and others — was sentenced to time served in May. She spent three days in custody following her arrest.

Abelardo Flores Jr., who gave Williams $7,500 for driving the route, pleaded guilty and testified against the trucker in hopes of a lighter sentence, is set learn his punishment next month.

Ringleaders have received from 12 to 23 years in prison. Minor players were sentenced to time served awaiting trial, one was acquitted, another had her charges dropped and one remains a fugitive.

cindy.george@chron.com

Picked that up on FoxNews too... And yea they want to let Mexican truckers here!!! HA! thats a laugh how many people will be smuggled in that way a day!?!?!

Truck Driver Gets Lengthy Prison Terms for Smuggling Illegal Immigrants

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,294316,00.html

HOUSTON — A truck driver already serving life in prison for the nation's deadliest human smuggling attempt was sentenced Thursday to lengthy terms for conspiracy and transporting illegal immigrants.

Tyrone Williams, 36, drove the tractor-trailer in a May 2003 smuggling attempt that ended with 19 illegal immigrants dead inside a sweltering trailer.

The trailer had been packed with 70 Latin American immigrants in South Texas headed for Houston, but the air conditioning in the airtight refrigerator truck was never turned on. As the temperature rose, the immigrants clawed at the insulation, broke out tail lights and screamed for help. The Jamaica-born driver abandoned the trailer after realizing what had happened.

Williams, who lived in Schenectady, N.Y., was convicted in December on 58 counts of conspiracy, harboring and transporting illegal immigrants, and the jury decided against the death penalty. The panel imposed a life sentence for some counts, and the judge sentenced him for the rest on Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal added more than 33 years for a conspiracy count and 20 years for each of 19 counts of transporting illegal immigrants, to be served concurrently with his life sentence. He also dismissed 19 counts of harboring immigrants that largely duplicated the transporting counts.

Federal prosecutor Daniel Rodriguez said he hopes the prison terms will send a message to other smugglers: "If you do this, you will be exposed to the possibility of receiving the death penalty."

Williams declined to give a statement in court before his sentencing Thursday.

His attorney, Craig Washington, said the new sentences don't matter much since Williams is already serving a life sentence.

Thirteen other people were charged in the case, but Williams was the only one who faced a possible death penalty. The suspected leader of the smuggling ring was sentenced last year to 17 years in prison, and the man who recruited Williams as a driver was sentenced in January to 15 years in prison.