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MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO SMUGGLING 14 ALIENS
By: CASEY KNAUPP, Staff Writer July 05, 2005
July 5, 2005

A 24-year-old illegal immigrant pleaded guilty Tuesday to smuggling more than a dozen aliens through Smith County.

Juan Carlos Perez-Diaz, of Chiapas, Mexico, admitted that on April 14 he transported 14 illegal aliens, crammed in a GMC Yukon, for financial gain.

Through an interpreter, Perez-Diaz told U.S. District Judge William Steger that he was promised reimbursement for money he spent on gasoline.

The defendant could face up to 10 years in federal prison, but U.S. Public Defender Greg Waldron said his client will most likely serve a year to a year and a half in prison, based on the offense and his criminal history.

Perez-Diaz was also indicted for illegally re-entering the country after he was arrested and deported.

Mark Waters, Smith County Precinct 5 deputy constable, pulled the Yukon over for speeding on Interstate 20 and found the illegal immigrants packed inside, according to earlier reports.

Waters said the "mule" told him the Hispanic immigrants from an area south of Guatemala, Mexico, were picked up in the Dallas area and were being transported to Alabama. Waters defined the term mule as the person who arranges for illegal aliens to be transported across the border into the U.S. or from a pre-determined pickup point to another location within the states.

Waters immediately called U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to advise them of his discovery and a bus was dispatched from Dallas to collect the immigrants from a Lindale fast-food restaurant's parking lot in Lindale.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Allen Hurst is prosecuting the case.

Also in Steger's court on Tuesday, Michael W. Howerton was sentenced to more than three years for being a felon in possession of a Ruger .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol.

Howerton, 32, said he wanted to apologize to his family for the trouble he has caused and he didn't realize the importance of it at the time. He said his "drug problem" played a big part and that he wished to undergo rehabilitation.

His attorney, Tom McClain, said the man, whose family is from Oklahoma, should be recommended for the drug program and Steger said he would be treated at a 500-hour residential substance abuse program while in prison. He also sentenced him to three years of supervised release after he serves the 41-month prison term.

Howerton was indicted for being a felon in possession of a firearm on Nov. 30, 2003, in Cherokee County. He was convicted in 1993 in Dallas County of unlawful possession of a weapon in a prohibited place. In his plea agreement, he agreed to forfeit the weapon. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Jackson prosecuted the case.

Casey Knaupp covers county, state and federal courts. She can be reached at 903.596.6289. e-mail: news@tylerpaper.