2003 — May 13-14, Illegal immigrants suffocate, hot/airless milk trailer, Victoria, TX– 19

 

–19  Blumenthal. “Truck driver found guilty in deaths of 19…immigrants…” NYT, 11-5-2006.

–19  US Attorney’s Office, Southern Dist. of TX. “Tyrone Williams Re-sentenced.” 1-24-2011.

 

Narrative Information

 

May 14, CNN: “Victoria, Texas (CNN) — Eighteen suspected illegal immigrants, including an infant, suffocated Wednesday after they rode in the back of a semi-trailer with dozens others from Mexico to south Texas, federal officials said. Federal authorities leading the investigation believe the migrants were locked inside the truck. All the deaths were due to asphyxiation, dehydration or heat-related conditions, officials said….

 

“The scope of the tragedy became clear after officers from the Victoria County Sheriff’s office responded to a 911 call reporting a disturbance outside a convenience store shortly after 2 a.m. Wednesday [May 14].[1] They found the trailer parked nearby. “When the deputies opened the door, they didn’t expect that there was gonna be people inside,” Shelby said, “and when they opened this door they were flooded by human beings that were pouring out of there.” Thirteen bodies were found inside the trailer and another four were found on the ground nearby, Victoria County Sheriff Michael Ratcliff said. Another person died after arriving at Citizens Medical Center in full cardiac arrest, a hospital spokeswoman said.

 

“As many as 100 people or more fled the back of the truck, he said, as sheriff’s deputies tried to administer first aid to those left behind. By Wednesday afternoon, 32 of the people, including eight juveniles, were in federal custody, Shelby said. As many as 80 remained at large….

 

“Federal authorities now leading the investigation suspect the migrants were locked inside the trailer….

 

“Four of the survivors remained in local hospitals Wednesday night and two of them were in critical condition….”  (Frieden, Terry (CNN). “18 human cargo deaths in Texas.” 5-14-2003.”)

 

May 14, LA Times: “Authorities said 17 suspected illegal immigrants were found dead today at a truck stop near the south Texas town of Victoria, and one more died at a hospital, in what is believed to be one of the worst cases of human smuggling near the U.S.-Mexican border in more than a decade. The big rig truck carried more than 100 people, jammed into the trailer like cargo. At least 44 survivors, including a 15-year-old girl, were being treated at nearby hospitals or housed at a community center.

 

“It is unclear whether those inside the trailer were illegal immigrants, but officials said while most came from Mexico, others were from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. “This case involves the greatest loss of life in recent history in what appears to be an alien smuggling case,”
said Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for border and transportation security at the Department of Homeland Security. He spoke at a press conference in Washington, D.C. ….

 

“A man believed to be one of the smugglers was arrested today in Houston, about 115 miles away, but had not been charged today. The trailer, with New York state license plates, had been registered in the suspect’s name to an address in Schenectady, N.Y., U.S. Attorney
Michael Shelby told the Associated Press. Left behind in the trailer along Highway 77, about 230 miles north of the Mexico border, were dozens of people.

 

“Responding to an emergency call, authorities opened the trailer’s door about 2 a.m. and “a flood of human beings” spilled out. Some dashed off, but others were too weak to run away, Shelby said. Authorities found 13 bodies inside and four outside the unhitched tractor-trailer. The victims were believed to have died from suffocation, heatstroke and other heat-related illnesses, Sheriff Michael Ratcliff said at a news conference today. The victims apparently tried to get fresh air by scraping away insulation that clogged small holes in the trailer’s back door. Reports ranged as high as 140 people were left in the trailer, but authorities late today were still trying to determine the exact figure. It remained unclear where the truck and trailer were headed.

 

“Six men, ranging in age from 20 to 47, had been taken to Detar Hospital Navarro, with at least one in critical condition. Ratcliff declined to say whether water containers had been found inside the rig. He also declined to say how long he believed the victims had been inside the tractor-trailer, even as outside temperatures soared. The high Tuesday was 91, three degrees short of a record for that day set in 1980. Factoring in humidity, the temperature felt like 99 degrees, the National Weather Service said….”  (Strickland and Gold. “17 Found Dead at Texas Truck Stop.” Los Angeles Times, 5-14-2003.)

 

May 15, 2003: “Victoria, Texas — On a desolate stretch of south Texas highway, sheriff’s deputies responding to a routine disturbance call discovered a tableau of horror early Wednesday morning [May 14]: the bodies of 17 people, most of them believed to be illegal Mexican immigrants, sprawled in and around a trailer at a roadside truck stop. An 18th person recovered from the trailer died later in the day, making it the most lethal incident involving suspected illegal immigrants in at least 16 years. Wednesday afternoon, federal authorities arrested a man suspected to have been the driver of the tractor-trailer rig, which he had apparently abandoned about 175 miles north of the Mexican border on U.S. Highway 77.

 

“Authorities said the dead — among at least 62 people packed into the locked trailer of an 18-wheeler — had apparently suffocated in the nearly airless, heat-baked container, despite the efforts of some who tried to claw two holes through the foam insulation to admit fresh air. Most of the trailer’s human cargo was male. The youngest of the dead was a small boy, perhaps 5 years old, who died in his father’s arms.” (Hockstader, Lee and Karin Brulliard. “Trapped in scorching trailer – 18 die/Immigrants abandoned at Texas truck stop.” Washington Post, 5-15-2003.)

 

Nov 5, 2006: “Houston — A truck driver was found guilty of all charges and faces possible execution in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants who suffocated in his airless trailer in South Texas in 2003. In a retrial of the nation’s deadliest human trafficking case, the federal jury that on Monday convicted the driver, Tyrone Williams, 35, of Schenectady, New York, begins hearing testimony on Wednesday on whether to give Williams the first death sentence under a 12- year-old “alien smuggling” statute or a lesser term of up to life in prison.

 

“The milk trailer, piled with bodies and 55 survivors, was found abandoned at a truck stop near Victoria, Texas, in the early hours of May 14, 2003.

 

“Williams, a legal immigrant from Jamaica, sat impassively through 58 recitations of “Guilty” as the verdict form was read, then embraced his lawyer, Craig Washington…Washington, whose trial defense conceded Williams’s role as a smuggler but challenged his awareness of the victims’ suffering, said he planned to put on about 20 witnesses to testify about mitigating factors in Williams’s history.

 

“The lead prosecutor, Daniel Rodriguez, an assistant U.S. attorney, who had painted Williams as “vile and heartless,” declined to comment until the punishment phase was concluded.

 

“Williams’s first trial had ended in March 2005 with an incomplete verdict later thrown out by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Jurors had found Williams guilty on 38 of the 58 counts but deadlocked on the others, including conspiracy resulting in death, a charge carrying possible capital punishment. Jurors also could not agree on how to answer questions assessing Williams’s degree of culpability. The Monday verdict, on the fifth day of deliberations, found him guilty of all 58 counts: conspiracy plus counts of harboring, transporting and transporting resulting in death for each of the 19 victims. The jurors also found him culpable as a principal offender, out for “private financial gain.”

 

“Evidence in the trials portrayed Williams as a milk trucker and sometime drug courier recruited by a smuggling ring to transport 60 illegal immigrants on a similar run from the border about a week earlier and who then took $7,500 to carry a group from Harlingen, Texas, past a Border Patrol checkpoint in Sarita to a waiting van and pickup truck. But the relief vehicles became stuck at the checkpoint, and Williams, with the truck’s refrigeration turned off, was directed by the smugglers to continue toward Houston. A companion in the cab, Fatima Holloway, testified that Williams ignored the banging of his passengers as they succumbed to airlessness, dehydration and temperatures as high as 173 degrees, or 78 degrees Celsius, finally clawing out a taillight in a desperate bid for air.

 

“The first to die, a survivor testified in English, was a 5-year-old Mexican boy who expired in his father’s arms, crying, “Daddy, Daddy, I’m dying.” Sixteen more suffocated before Williams halted the truck, and two more died in the hospital.” (Blumenthal, Ralph. “Truck driver found guilty in deaths of 19 illegal immigrants in Texas in 2003.” New York Times, 11-5-2006.)

 

US Attorney’s Office, So. Dis. TX: “(Houston) – The driver of the insulated tractor trailer used in a smuggling operation which left a total of 19 aliens dead in the deadliest smuggling operation ever in the district has been sentenced to more than 30 years imprisonment without the possibility of parole, United States Attorney José Angel Moreno announced today. U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal today sentenced Tyrone Mapletoft Williams, 40, to 405 months imprisonment on each of 19 counts of conviction – counts 40 through 58 of the indictment – relating to the 19 deceased victims of the ill-fated smuggling operation in May 2003. Williams was the driver of a tractor trailer discovered abandoned at a truck stop in Victoria, Texas, during the early hours of May 14, 2003. Victoria law enforcement officers who arrived at the location came upon the bodies of 17 smuggled foreign nationals in and around the trailer who had died as a result of being transported inside Williams’ insulated trailer. Two additional trailer occupants subsequently died of their injuries at Victoria area hospitals. The resulting 19 deaths associated with this smuggling operation establishes it as the deadliest in the district.

 

“Williams was originally sentenced to life imprisonment on each of these 19 counts of conviction by a jury’s verdict; however, the case was remanded to the District Court for re-sentencing after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion finding that Williams’ punishment on these counts of conviction should have been assessed by the court and not the jury.

 

“Williams was convicted by a jury of conspiring with others to transport and harbor illegal aliens for commercial advantage and financial gain in a manner that caused serious bodily injury, placed a life in jeopardy or caused death as alleged in count one of the indictment and further found his conduct placed a life in jeopardy. Judge Rosenthal previously sentenced Williams to 405 months imprisonment for this count of conviction which was upheld by the appellate court.

 

“In counts 21-39, Williams was charged with unlawfully transporting 19 of the 55 surviving aliens. Judge Rosenthal had previously sentenced Williams to the statutory maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment on each of these counts. These sentences were also upheld on appeal.

 

“The sentences on all counts of conviction are to be served concurrently. Williams has been in federal custody since his May 2003. Williams will remain in custody to serve out his sentences. There is no parole in the federal system.

 

“This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel C. Rodriguez, Jeffery Vaden and Tony R. Roberts and is the result of an extensive investigation conducted by the Houston, San Antonio, Harlingen, Brownsville and McAllen, Texas, offices of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement – Homeland Security Investigations, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development-Office of the Inspector General, the Texas Department of Public Safety including the Texas Rangers, the Victoria County Sheriff’s Department and police departments in McAllen, Harlingen and Victoria.”  (United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Texas. “Tyrone Williams Re-sentenced (press release).” 1-24-2011.)

 

Sources

 

Blumenthal, Ralph. “Truck driver found guilty in deaths of 19 illegal immigrants in Texas in 2003.” New York Times, 11-5-2006. Accessed 3-28-2014 at: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/05/world/americas/05iht-smuggle.3787320.html?_r=0

 

Frieden, Terry (CNN). “18 human cargo deaths in Texas.” 5-14-2003.” Accessed 3-30-2014 at: http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Southwest/05/14/truck.bodies/index.html?_s=PM:US

 

Hockstader, Lee and Karin Brulliard. “Trapped in scorching trailer – 18 die/Immigrants abandoned at Texas truck stop.” Washington Post, 5-15-2003. Accessed 3-30-2014 at: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Trapped-in-scorching-trailer-18-die-2648170.php

 

Strickland, Daryl and Scott Gold. “17 Found Dead at Texas Truck Stop.” Los Angeles Times, 5-14-2003. Accessed at: http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/immigration/immigrants-dead.htm

 

United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Texas. “Tyrone Williams Re-sentenced (press release).” 1-24-2011. Accessed 3-30-2014 at: http://www.justice.gov/usao/txs/1News/Releases/2011%20January/110124%20Williams.htm

 

 

 

 

[1] Given that the discovery was at 2am on May 14 in a vehicle that had been abandoned for hours, it appears that the deaths started on May 13, and perhaps were still continuing into May 14, when discovered.