Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The man behind the wheel when a van filled with illegal immigrants overturned, killing two, has been sentenced to two years in prison by a federal judge who rejected harsher punishment, saying it would be no deterrent.
The sentenced was imposed Wednesday on Noe Luna-Escalona by U.S. District Judge Dee Benson, who turned down the prosecution's recommendation of a five-year sentence.
"We're not deterring much of anything," Benson said, noting there were an estimated 12 million illegal aliens in the United States, many moving around by vehicle. "What do we gain by giving him five years in prison?"
Benson also ordered the Mexican illegal immigrant, who was 18 at the time of the accident, to pay $203,000 in restitution for the cost of medical services to the victims of the accident, but said it was not likely that the hospitals would be compensated.
Benson said Luna-Escalona does not fit the definition of a smuggler because the passengers already were in the United States.
"What we have is an 18-year old who was asked to drive a van from Arizona to Colorado," the judge said. "It's not exactly the crime of the century," he said. "It's a sad, sad story."
He said there was little difference between this accident and any other in which the driver falls asleep.
Luna-Escalona was driving on U.S. 191 near Moab on Oct. 11, when he fell asleep at the wheel and the van carrying 15 other people -- 14 other illegal immigrants and a man accused of being the smuggler they paid to bring them across the border -- drifted off the highway.
He overcorrected and the 2000 Dodge Caravan rolled, killing Juana Ixcuna-Chich and Amalia Perez-Lucas of Guatemala.
Defense attorney Scott C. Williams argued that Luna-Escalona did not smuggle the other immigrants into the country, was not the one who removed seats from the van to fit in more passengers and did not know the exact number of people in the vehicle. His only part in the operation was to drive from Arizona to Colorado, Williams said.
"He knew nothing except where he was going and where he had come from," Williams said. "He's not the coyote. He's not the smuggler."
The smuggler allegedly was Ramses Castellano-Lin, who Williams said met Luna-Escalona at a gas station in Arizona and asked him to drive to Colorado.
Castellano-Lin checked out of a hospital after being treated for injuries and disappeared. He also is charged in the case and remains at large.
Prosecutor Dustin Pead argued that Luna-Escalona was reckless for driving a van that had one of its seats taken out.
Through a translator, Luna-Escalona, who was 18 at the time of the rollover, expressed remorse.
"First of all, I would just like to ask the United States for forgiveness for causing all this trouble," he said. "I am really sorry for what happened."
Luna-Escalona, who had no previous criminal record, said he plans to return to Mexico when he gets out of prison and never to come back to the United States.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
