Trucker gets nearly 34 years in smuggling deaths

HOUSTON (AP) — A judge has resentenced a truck driver to nearly 34 years in prison after an appeals court last year overturned the multiple life sentences he received for his role in America’s deadliest human smuggling attempt.

Tyrone Williams was given his new sentence on Monday during a hearing in Houston federal court.

The 39-year-old Williams had faced possible death sentences on 19 counts of transporting illegal immigrants. But a jury in 2007 sentenced him to life in prison without parole for the failed May 2003 smuggling attempt, which resulted in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants.

The appeals court said Williams was not death-penalty eligible and his sentence should have been issued by the judge. Twenty other counts Williams was sentenced on were upheld by the appeals court.