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 News from Around the Americas | December 2006 
US Jury Convicts Driver in Deaths of Illegal Immigrants
 AFP
| | Tyrone Williams (top) is led out of federal court in Houston, Texas, May 2003. A US federal jury found Williams guilty in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants who perished in the truck he was driving in sweltering temperatures near the US-Mexico border. (AFP/James Neilsen) |
A US federal jury found a Jamaican man guilty in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants who perished in the truck he was driving in sweltering temperatures near the US-Mexico border.
Convicted on 58 counts of smuggling, Tyrone Williams now faces a possible death sentence under a 1994 law. The legislation allows for the death penalty if an illegal immigrant dies during a smuggling operation.
During the trial, US District Attorney Daniel Rodriguez said the 35-year-old Williams - a Jamaican national living in the United States - was a "vile and heartless truck driver who has no regard for human life."
He said Williams treated the 85 Hispanic immigrants in the sealed, refrigerated trailer he was hauling like cargo.
Witnesses said they pleaded for air and water and pounded on the sides as many suffocated and succumbed to heat stroke amid sweltering temperatures.
A five-year-old boy was among the 19 victims who died.
Williams' defense lawyer, Craig Washington, said he was "deeply disappointed" by the verdict.
Washington said he will argue to save his client's life when the sentencing phase of the trial begins on Wednesday.
"He was guilty of transporting. We admitted that from the very beginning but he's not the kind of person that would intentionally kill people," he said.
Washington said Williams did not know how many people were crammed inside the trailer, which he picked up at Mexico's border with the US state of Texas. He said this was his client's second smuggling attempt and previously had transported only 17 people.
Williams abandoned the trailer in Victoria, Texas after discovering the dead bodies but was later arrested in Houston. |
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