Post by WaTcHeR on Feb 1, 2006 19:10:03 GMT -5
02/01/2006 - A waving arm thrust through a hole in the rear of a tractor-trailer rig caught the attention of Scott Allan Reuter late May 13, 2003, as he drove north on Texas 77 near Kingsville.
Reuter's testimony Tuesday in the trial of three people accused of human smuggling suggested that the lives of 19 illegal immigrants packed into that stifling trailer could have been saved if a police dispatcher had taken his 911 call seriously.
Seventeen bodies were found in and near the abandoned trailer the next morning at a Victoria truck stop. Two more people died at a hospital. At least 74 had been packed into the hot, airless trailer.
Reuter told jurors that, when he saw the arm waving a bandanna or rag, the truck was in Kingsville, more than 100 miles south of where it stopped.
Kingsville police dispatcher Annie Cantu testified that she thought Reuter's call was unbelievable. Jurors heard Cantu laugh on the tape as she told her superior about the report.
Under cross-examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Rodriguez, Cantu said she thought Reuter was drunk. Reuter asked her to call police in the next town, but she testified that she never did.
Accused of being part of a conspiracy that led to the deaths are Victor Sanchez Rodriguez, 58; his wife, Emma Sapata Rodriguez, 59; and her half-sister, Rosa Sarrata Gonzalez, 51.
After prosecutors finished presenting their case Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore acquitted the Rodriguezes of 40 of 60 smuggling counts and Sarrata of 55 of 58 smuggling counts.
Each dismissed count was linked to a specific rider in the trailer. Gilmore said she dismissed the counts in which testimony failed to link the defendants to those riders.
Each defendant still could be sentenced to a maximum of life in prison if convicted on the remaining conspiracy charge.
Reuter's testimony Tuesday in the trial of three people accused of human smuggling suggested that the lives of 19 illegal immigrants packed into that stifling trailer could have been saved if a police dispatcher had taken his 911 call seriously.
Seventeen bodies were found in and near the abandoned trailer the next morning at a Victoria truck stop. Two more people died at a hospital. At least 74 had been packed into the hot, airless trailer.
Reuter told jurors that, when he saw the arm waving a bandanna or rag, the truck was in Kingsville, more than 100 miles south of where it stopped.
Kingsville police dispatcher Annie Cantu testified that she thought Reuter's call was unbelievable. Jurors heard Cantu laugh on the tape as she told her superior about the report.
Under cross-examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Rodriguez, Cantu said she thought Reuter was drunk. Reuter asked her to call police in the next town, but she testified that she never did.
Accused of being part of a conspiracy that led to the deaths are Victor Sanchez Rodriguez, 58; his wife, Emma Sapata Rodriguez, 59; and her half-sister, Rosa Sarrata Gonzalez, 51.
After prosecutors finished presenting their case Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore acquitted the Rodriguezes of 40 of 60 smuggling counts and Sarrata of 55 of 58 smuggling counts.
Each dismissed count was linked to a specific rider in the trailer. Gilmore said she dismissed the counts in which testimony failed to link the defendants to those riders.
Each defendant still could be sentenced to a maximum of life in prison if convicted on the remaining conspiracy charge.