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Truck driver sentenced to life in prison
2007-01-18
A truck driver was spared the death penalty and sentenced to life in prison Thursday for his role in the nation's deadliest human smuggling attempt -- a journey that ended in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants crammed in a tractor-trailer. Tyrone Williams, 36, was convicted last month on 58 counts of conspiracy, harboring and transporting immigrants. More than 70 immigrants were locked for hours inside his sweltering trailer during the 2003 trip from South Texas to Houston. Nineteen died from dehydration, overheating and suffocation. Williams abandoned the container near Victoria, about 100 miles southwest of Houston. Defense attorneys said Williams never intended for the immigrants to die and questioned why he was the only defendant in the case facing the death penalty. But prosecutors said Williams deserved to die because he knew the immigrants were dying and did not help them. Williams, a Jamaican citizen who lived in Schenectady, N.Y., is one of 14 people charged in the case.
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