A federal jury in San Antonio on Tuesday found two men guilty in connection to the deadliest human smuggling incident in modern U.S. history.
Fifty-three migrants, including six children, died in a stifling tractor-trailer on June 27, 2022.
Felipe Orduna-Torres and Armando Gonzales-Ortega may spend the rest of their lives in prison for those deaths, which took place in the back of a tractor-trailer without air conditioning in the South Texas sun.
The two men, who were a part of a human smuggling network, will be sentenced on June 27, exactly three years after the incident.
Dozens of men, women and children from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and other nations were found trapped in the tractor-trailer on Quintana Road in Southwest San Antonio in 2022.
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said at the time that a worker at a nearby facility heard a person crying for help and found the trailer with numerous dead inside.
San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said they were hot to the touch and suffering from heat exhaustion.
“No signs of water in the vehicle, it was a refrigerated tractor-trailer, but there was no visible working AC unit on that rig,” he added. Temperatures in San Antonio at the time regularly exceeded 100 degrees.
San Antonio has seen migrant smuggling attempts unravel many times over the past decade, but this was especially egregious, said San Antonio immigration attorney Jonathan Ryan.
“It remains the largest single casualty event of this type in Texas and potentially in the United States — that is, in terms of those that have been discovered," Ryan said.
The men are part of an international smuggling operation. Five others have already been convicted or pleaded guilty and are also facing potential life sentences.
The case showed a vast network of human smuggling crossing multiple countries.
"We're going to see over this next summer likely more incidents such as this," Ryan added, "as people undertake more and more dangerous ways to enter the United States."
After the verdict, federal prosecutor Erich Fuchs showed images from inside the stifling tractor-trailer, showing claw marks: “Claw marks from when they were desperately clawing at the sides trying to get out. You can see that insulation, the scraps of it — how it is fresh — right below the claw marks."
Homero Zamorano, the driver, abandoned the migrants — 66 in total. Zamorano pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to transport aliens. He faces life in prison and is also scheduled for sentencing in June.
The jury deliberated for two and a half hours before handing down the guilty verdicts. They were found guilty on three federal counts each: conspiracy to transport aliens resulting in death or resulting in serious bodily injury placing lives in jeopardy; transportation of illegal aliens resulting in death; and transportation of illegal aliens resulting in serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy.
A memorial of painted crosses was erected alongside Quintana Road to remember the 53 lives lost, next to a mural that listed the victims' names.
Since the incident, dozens more people have been found trapped in similar predicaments — tractor-trailers, train cars or other vehicles — and almost all also dealing with severe and life-threatening heat.
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