http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 26619.html

Jan. 31, 2006, 7:11PM



Testimony suggests dismissed 911 call could've saved immigrants
Dispatcher says motorist's report was so unusual it was unbeliveable
By HARVEY RICE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

A waving arm thrust through a hole in the rear of a tractor-trailer rig caught the attention of Scott Allan Reuter late on May 13, 2003, as he drove north on Texas 77 near Kingsville.

Reuter's testimony Tuesday in the trial of three people accused of smuggling humans suggested that the lives of 19 illegal immigrants packed into that stifling trailer could have been saved if a police dispatcher had taken his 911 call seriously.

Seventeen bodies were found in and near the abandoned trailer the next morning at a Victoria truck stop. Two more people died at a hospital. At least 74 had been sealed into the hot, airless trailer.

Reuter told jurors that, when he saw the arm desperately waving a bandana or rag, the truck was in Kingsville, more than 100 miles south of the point where it finally stopped.

"I could tell by how frantically the hands were moving that something was wrong," he said under questioning by defense attorney Gerald Bourque.

He was so concerned that he drove to a pay phone after his cell phone battery failed and he found that the battery on his home phone wasn't charged, Reuter said.

Kingsville police 911 dispatcher Annie Cantu testified that Reuter's call was so unusual that it was unbelievable. Jurors heard Cantu laugh on the tape as she told her superior about the report.

Under cross examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Rodriguez, Cantu said she thought Reuter was drunk. Reuter asked her to call police in Bishop, the next town up the highway, but Cantu testified that she never did.

Accused of being part of a smuggling conspiracy that led to the deaths are Victor Sanchez Rodriguez, 58, alleged leader of one of three smuggling operations involved; his wife, Emma Sapata Rodriguez, 59; and her half-sister, Rosa Sarrata Gonzalez, 51.

After prosecutors finished presenting their case Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore acquitted the Rodriguezes of 40 of 60 smuggling counts and Sarrata of 55 of 58 smuggling counts.

Each dismissed count was linked to a specific rider in the trailer. Gilmore said she dismissed the counts in which testimony failed to link the defendants to those riders.

Even with the dismissals, each defendant still could be sentenced to a maximum of life in prison if convicted on the remaining conspiracy charge. Sarrata faces a maximum of 20 years on each of the remaining two smuggling counts.

The Rodriguezes face a maximum of life on each of three smuggling charges connected to an immigrant death, 20 years on 14 smuggling counts involving injury or fear of injury, and 10 years on the two remaining smuggling counts.

Of the other 11 indicted, five have pleaded guilty, two were found guilty by a jury, one was acquitted, charges were dropped against one, one is awaiting a retrial and one is a fugitive.

harvey.rice@chron.com