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<span style="font-weight: bold">News Source: OTGNR - </span>
<span style="font-weight: bold"> Confirmed : # Jamaican re - sentenced...ing ( RJR )...</span>
A Jamaican-born truck driver has been re-sentenced to nearly 34 years in prison after a federal appeals court last year overturned the multiple life sentences he received for his role in America's deadliest human smuggling attempt.FILE - In this March 21, 2005, file photo truck driver Tyrone Williams leaves the federal courthouse in Houston in shackles. Williams was resentenced to nearly 34 years in prison on Monday, Jan. 24, 2011, after a federal appeals court last year overturned the multiple life sentences he received for his role in America's deadliest human smuggling attempt, which resulted in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants in 2003.Photo Credit: (AP)The new sentence of 405 months that Tyrone Williams, 39, was given in Houston, Texas on Monday is equal to the longest prison term he previously got in the case.During the sentencing hearing, prosecutor Daniel Rodriguez made an impassioned plea for the truck driver to remain in prison for life for the deadly May 2003 incident.Nineteen people died in Williams' sweltering tractor-trailer.Mr. Rodriguez said that during the smuggling attempt from South Texas to Houston, Williams heard the immigrants begging and screaming for their lives as they were succumbing to the stifling heat inside his vehicle but he refused to free them. "I live with regret every day of my life"A tearful Williams told US District Judge Lee Rosenthal that he did not merit a life sentence because he was not capable of all the things the prosecutors had accused him of doing and that the deaths were an accident."If I had known those people were in trouble like that, I would have opened those doors. I don't kill people, your honor," Williams, said."I live with regret every day of my life," he added.Williams was convicted on 58 counts of conspiracy, harbouring and transporting illegal immigrants. He had faced possible death sentences on 19 counts of transporting illegal immigrants but in 2007, a jury decided to sentence him to life in prison without parole.However, the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Williams was not eligible for capital punishment and said Judge Rosenthal should have sentenced him on those counts.While the life sentences were dismissed, the appeal court upheld the other sentences Williams was given by Rosenthal: 20 years for 19 other transporting counts and nearly 34 years for the conspiracy count. Prosecutors had dismissed 19 harboring counts.All the sentences Williams has now been given are running concurrently.Kicking & screamingThe smuggling attempt began in the South Texas city of Harlingen, where more than 70 immigrants from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic were packed inside Williams' tractor-trailer.He was only supposed to take the immigrants about 120 miles north to Robstown but during the trip, he was told to instead take them to Houston, which was more than 200 miles past Robstown.During the more than three-hour trip, Williams never turned on the air conditioning in the airtight truck.As temperatures in the trailer skyrocketed to as high as 173 degrees Fahrenheit, the immigrants kicked walls, clawed at insulation, broke out tail lights and screamed for help.Williams abandoned the trailer at a truck stop near Victoria, about 100 miles southwest of Houston.Williams, an immigrant from Jamaica who lived in Schenectady, N.Y., was later arrested in Houston.Seventeen people, including a 5-year-old boy, were found dead in the trailer.Two others died later.All the deaths were attributed to dehydration, overheating and suffocation.Besides Williams, 13 others were indicted in the case.Two had charges against them dismissed, one who cooperated with prosecutors was sentenced to the three days in jail she served after her arrest and the others were given sentences ranging from 14 months to 23 years in prison.Williams was the only one who faced a possible death sentence.http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...73201512723078
<span style="font-weight: bold"> Confirmed : # Jamaican re - sentenced...ing ( RJR )...</span>
A Jamaican-born truck driver has been re-sentenced to nearly 34 years in prison after a federal appeals court last year overturned the multiple life sentences he received for his role in America's deadliest human smuggling attempt.FILE - In this March 21, 2005, file photo truck driver Tyrone Williams leaves the federal courthouse in Houston in shackles. Williams was resentenced to nearly 34 years in prison on Monday, Jan. 24, 2011, after a federal appeals court last year overturned the multiple life sentences he received for his role in America's deadliest human smuggling attempt, which resulted in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants in 2003.Photo Credit: (AP)The new sentence of 405 months that Tyrone Williams, 39, was given in Houston, Texas on Monday is equal to the longest prison term he previously got in the case.During the sentencing hearing, prosecutor Daniel Rodriguez made an impassioned plea for the truck driver to remain in prison for life for the deadly May 2003 incident.Nineteen people died in Williams' sweltering tractor-trailer.Mr. Rodriguez said that during the smuggling attempt from South Texas to Houston, Williams heard the immigrants begging and screaming for their lives as they were succumbing to the stifling heat inside his vehicle but he refused to free them. "I live with regret every day of my life"A tearful Williams told US District Judge Lee Rosenthal that he did not merit a life sentence because he was not capable of all the things the prosecutors had accused him of doing and that the deaths were an accident."If I had known those people were in trouble like that, I would have opened those doors. I don't kill people, your honor," Williams, said."I live with regret every day of my life," he added.Williams was convicted on 58 counts of conspiracy, harbouring and transporting illegal immigrants. He had faced possible death sentences on 19 counts of transporting illegal immigrants but in 2007, a jury decided to sentence him to life in prison without parole.However, the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Williams was not eligible for capital punishment and said Judge Rosenthal should have sentenced him on those counts.While the life sentences were dismissed, the appeal court upheld the other sentences Williams was given by Rosenthal: 20 years for 19 other transporting counts and nearly 34 years for the conspiracy count. Prosecutors had dismissed 19 harboring counts.All the sentences Williams has now been given are running concurrently.Kicking & screamingThe smuggling attempt began in the South Texas city of Harlingen, where more than 70 immigrants from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic were packed inside Williams' tractor-trailer.He was only supposed to take the immigrants about 120 miles north to Robstown but during the trip, he was told to instead take them to Houston, which was more than 200 miles past Robstown.During the more than three-hour trip, Williams never turned on the air conditioning in the airtight truck.As temperatures in the trailer skyrocketed to as high as 173 degrees Fahrenheit, the immigrants kicked walls, clawed at insulation, broke out tail lights and screamed for help.Williams abandoned the trailer at a truck stop near Victoria, about 100 miles southwest of Houston.Williams, an immigrant from Jamaica who lived in Schenectady, N.Y., was later arrested in Houston.Seventeen people, including a 5-year-old boy, were found dead in the trailer.Two others died later.All the deaths were attributed to dehydration, overheating and suffocation.Besides Williams, 13 others were indicted in the case.Two had charges against them dismissed, one who cooperated with prosecutors was sentenced to the three days in jail she served after her arrest and the others were given sentences ranging from 14 months to 23 years in prison.Williams was the only one who faced a possible death sentence.http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...73201512723078