Boatman pleads guilty after three migrants die
Antonio Hurtado, 40, was attempting to smuggle 32 people into the country.
SAN DIEGO — The man at the helm of a smuggling boat that capsized last year off San Diego, ending in the deaths of three migrants, pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to his role in the tragedy.
Antonio Hurtado, a 40-year-old U.S. citizen, pleaded guilty to felony charges of attempted human smuggling resulting in death and attempted human smuggling for financial gain relating to each of the people who died.
The plea came one month before the case was set to go to trial in San Diego.
Hurtado was trying to smuggle 32 migrants into the U.S. aboard his black, 40foot trawler-style boat, the Salty Lady, when the wreck occurred May 2 about 50 feet from Point Loma.
It was midmorning on a Sunday, and sightseers at Cabrillo National Monument and the tidepools below watched the boat capsize.
The journey had been problematic from the beginning. Hurtado admitted in his plea agreement to repeatedly using drugs during the trip north, passing out at least once. The boat went in circles for more than an hour before passengers were able to wake him, the plea states.
The seas were growing rough, and one passenger told Reuters that Hurtado had dropped anchor in an apparent attempt to steady the overloaded boat. After several hours, Hurtado tried to lift the anchor but struggled; the passenger told Reuters that Hurtado leaned over and cut the anchor rope or chain with a saw.
Then the motor died, according to the passenger. Large swells carried the boat toward shore, and it ran aground and began to list to the side.
Hurtado jumped into the water and made it to land, abandoning his passengers, many of whom were huddled in the cabin. Surf pounded at the boat, breaking it apart and sending the migrants into the ocean.
Bystanders, lifeguards and National Park Service employees sprang into action, rescuing people from the waves. Three Mexican migrants suffered bluntforce trauma and drowned: Victor Perez Degollado, 29; Maria Eugenia Chavez Segovia, 41; and Maricela Hernandez Sanchez, 35.
The survivors told authorities they had paid $15,000 to $18,000 to be smuggled into the U.S. and identified Hurtado as the pilot of the boat, according to the criminal complaint.
U.S. Atty. Randy Grossman called Hurtado’s recklessness “incomprehensible and stunning.”
“The defendant’s boat was packed with way too many people, and he then repeatedly used illicit drugs to the point of losing consciousness. When the boat capsized and passengers were desperately trying to survive, the defendant swam to safety, leaving them all behind,” he said in a statement. “It was a shocking and callous series of events.”
Hurtado, who struggled with drug addiction, was in debt. Days before the wreck, he had promised those to whom he owed money that he would pay them off, acquaintances told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
He lived on the boat at the Zuñiga Jetty Shoal, an unofficial long-term anchorage for live-aboard boaters outside the mouth of San Diego Bay.
Hurtado also pleaded guilty to assault on a federal officer, admitting to kneeing a Border Patrol agent in the head while shackles were being placed on his ankle as he was taken into custody.
Sentencing has been tentatively set for July 1.
Davis writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.