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HOUSTON (AP) - Prosecutors are asking a federal judge to sentence a woman to life in prison for her role in a 2003 human smuggling attempt that left 19 people dead.
Karla Patricia Chavez Joya, 28, who is accused of heading the botched smuggling operation, pleaded guilty in 2004 to charges of conspiring to transport illegal immigrants.
Chavez and 13 others were arrested after the discovery of 17 bodies in and near a tractor-trailer abandoned at a truck stop near Victoria. Two others died in a hospital. They all died from dehydration, overheating and suffocation.
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