Driver charged in smuggling deaths
Heat kills 10 migrants packed in tractor-trailer
SAN ANTONIO• The driver of a broiling tractor- trailer found packed with immigrants outside a Walmart in San Antonio 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 Bradley Jr., 60, federal prosecutors depicted the trailer as pitchblack, crammed with around 90 people or more by some estimates, 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, Florida, man was ordered held for another hearing on Thursday.
He did not enter a plea or say anything about what happened. But in court papers, he told authorities he didn’t realize anyone was inside his rig until he parked and got out to relieve himself.
Authorities discovered eight bodies inside the crowded 18- wheeler parked in the summer heat, and two more victims died at hospital. Nearly 20 others rescued from the rig were hospitalized in dire condition, many suffering from extreme dehydration and heatstroke.
At least some of those aboard were from Mexico and Guatemala, authorities said.
Bradley told investigators 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.
Bradley told investigators he knew the trailer refrigeration system didn’t work and the four ventilation holes were probably clogged. He also said he did not call 911, even though he knew at least one passenger was dead.
“I just can’t believe it. I’m stunned, shocked. He is too good a person to do anything like this,” said Bradley’s fiancée, Darnisha Rose of Louisville, Kentucky. “He helps people, he doesn’t hurt people.”
One of the passengers told investigators he was in a group of 24 in a “stash house” in Laredo for 11 days before being taken to the tractor-trailer.
Latin Americans who enter the U.S. illegal ly often hire smuggling networks to guide them across the border by foot or raft, put them in safe houses and give them rides to their destination in the U.S.
The tragedy came to light when a person from the truck approached a Walmart employee and asked for water late Saturday night or early Sunday morning after a day of temperatures in the 90s and over 100, police said.