Trucker charged in smuggling case

SAN ANTONIO - The driver of a broiling tractor-trailer found packed with immigrants outside a Walmart was charged Monday in the deaths of 10 of his passengers and could face the death penalty.

In outlining their immigrant-smuggling case against James Matthew Bradley Jr., 60, federal prosecutors depicted the trailer as pitch-black, crammed with around 90 people and so suffocatingly hot that one passenger said they took turns breathing through a hole and pounding on the walls to get the driver’s attention.

Bradley appeared in federal court on charges of illegally transporting immigrants for financial gain, resulting in death. The Clearwater, Fla., man was ordered held for another hearing Thursday.

In court papers, Bradley told authorities he didn’t realize anyone was inside his rig until he parked and got out to relieve himself.

Over the weekend, authorities discovered eight bodies inside the crowded 18-wheeler parked in the summer heat, and two more victims died at the hospital. Nearly 20 others were hospitalized in dire condition.

Bradley told investigators that the trailer had been sold and he was transporting it for his boss from Iowa to Brownsville, Texas. After hearing banging and shaking, he opened the door and was “surprised when he was run over by ‘Spanish’ people and knocked to the ground,” according to the criminal complaint.