Immigrant smuggler gets eight years in deadly crash

Smuggler drove another car that didn't wreck but agreed to charge.

By Guillermo Contreras
gcontreras@express-news.net
Updated 10:26 p.m., Wednesday, March 23, 2011


A Houston-area smuggler was sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison Wednesday for a crash in Bexar County that left three undocumented immigrants dead.

Ronald Jonny Diaz, a legal U.S. resident from El Salvador, wasn't driving the carload of immigrants involved in the deadly wreck. He was behind the wheel of a second immigrant-laden vehicle, a Nissan, that tried to evade police when both cars were spotted Nov. 19, 2008, on Interstate 35 near Natalia.

But as part of a deal with prosecutors, Diaz pleaded guilty to the same charge as Marcos Elias Guevara Rodriguez — conspiracy to transport illegal immigrants resulting in death.

Guevara was sentenced last month to 15 years for driving the ill-fated 2004 Toyota Avalon. He admitted driving more than 140 mph as his passengers begged him to slow down. Killed were passengers Agustin Garcia Hernandez, 32, and Omar Ibanez Torres, 18. David Medina Torres, 59, who was in the trunk, died less than a month later at an area hospital. All were from Mexico.

Diaz, meanwhile, slowed down to let some of his passengers out, then drove to a country road, where he tried to run away while two more passengers exited the Nissan's trunk, U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez said. Both vehicles had been stolen in carjackings in Houston days before the crash, the judge said.

Diaz apologized for his actions and to the families of the victims. His common-law wife and mother of his five children, Maria Norma Guevara, asked the judge for compassion.

“My husband does not deserve to be in jail for a crime he did not commit,â€