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 HOUSTON (AP) - Three more people were convicted Wednesday in the nation's deadliest human smuggling attempt, a journey that ended in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants who had been packed into a stifling tractor-trailer.
The defendants, all U.S. citizens from South Texas, were convicted of conspiracy and harboring and transporting illegal immigrants. They could get up to 20 years in prison when sentenced May 1 on the conspiracy charge. The other counts carry punishment ranges of 10 to 20 years.
Prosecutors said Victor Sanchez Rodriguez, 58, his wife, Emma Sapata Rodriguez, 59, and her half-sister, Rosa Sarrata Gonzalez, hid the immigrants in their home and moved them to other houses before they were loaded into an airtight tractor-trailer for transport from South Texas to Houston in 2003.
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