Man sentenced for human smuggling in Wichita County





Trish Choate, Wichita Falls Times Record News
Fri, February 10, 2023 at 5:33 PM EST



A Houston man pleaded guilty Friday to human smuggling after he was arrested during a traffic stop with seven Guatemalans in the vehicle, according to court documents.

William Rene Carlos-Baran, 37, was convicted of smuggling of persons in connection with an incident July 5, 2022, when the Toyota SUV he was driving was pulled over for a traffic violation on U.S 287 in Electra, court records show.

Wichita County deputies arrested him, and the U.S. Border Patrol picked up and detained the seven Guatemalan immigrants.




Carlos-Baran

Thirtieth District Judge Jeff McKnight sentenced Carlos-Baran to two years in state jail Friday, according to court fillings. He received 221 days of credit for time served in jail. McKnight ordered him to pay $290 in court costs.

The third-degree felony is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Carlos-Baran waived his right to appeal or file a motion seeking a new trial, court records show.

He remained Friday in the Wichita County Law Enforcement Center and was still being held on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer, according to online jail records.

A deputy pulled Carlos-Baran over about 7:55 p.m. the day after the Fourth of July, according to an affidavit. The deputy had observed him stopping completely past the stop sign.

He and the seven Guatemalan immigrants in the silver 2003 SUV he was driving seemed nervous to the deputy.

Carlos-Baran told the deputy they were on their way to Houston from Las Vegas, and that he didn't know his passengers' names.

He only knew them through roofing jobs. Carlos-Baran told the deputy he met someone at a Nevada Casino. He told him to pick the passengers up at a gas station in Nevada and drive them to a store in Houston. Upon arrival there, he would collect $100 per person transported.

The passengers told the deputy they were vacationing for a week in Wichita Falls before heading back to Nevada. They didn't know where they were staying.

Trish Choate, enterprise watchdog reporter for the Times Record News, covers education, courts, breaking news and more. Contact her with news tips at tchoate@gannett.com. Her Twitter handle is @Trishapedia.

This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Man sentenced in Wichita County for human smuggling


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