Thread: Mexican girl: Smuggler ignored plea to save family

Mexican girl: Smuggler ignored plea to save family

By ELLIOT SPAGAT, The Associated Press
7:04 p.m. October 15, 2009

EL CENTRO, Calif. — A 13-year-old Mexican girl alleges a human smuggler kicked her in the stomach after ignoring a plea to save her parents and younger brother from a GMC Suburban that overturned into a canal in Southern California.

Cecilia Cid-Contreras told jurors Thursday in El Centro, Calif., that she woke up underwater and swam to a bank, where she begged the smuggler – who also was the Suburban's driver – for help saving her family. Cid-Contreras' family members were among six people who died when the vehicle plunged into the canal with about 20 passengers.

The crash happened near Westmorland, about 120 miles east of San Diego.

The girl is a key prosecution witness against Alejandro Toribio Gama, a 16-year-old Mexican who is charged as an adult in Imperial Superior Court with murder for allegedly driving the Suburban into the canal in July 2008.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... dex=183540

Sad for the girl but don't make her a US citiznen because of the tragedy.