Driver of illegal immigrants gets 30 years for fatal crash
By: North County Times wire services - | ∞
EL CAJON -- The driver of a van that was loaded with illegal immigrants when it crashed head-on into a truck on state Route 94, killing five people, including two children, was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in state prison.
Fidel Wilfredo Gonzalez, 20, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to five counts of gross vehicular manslaughter and six counts of assault with a deadly weapon for causing the June 30, 2005, crash about one mile east of Steele Canyon Road near Jamul.
A 13-year-old boy, a 10-year-old girl, a pregnant woman and a man, who were all riding in the back of the van, along with a U.S. citizen sitting in the front passenger seat, were killed in the crash, said Deputy District Attorney Joe McLaughlin.
The prosecutor said Gonzalez tried to pass a car on a blind curve and crossed the yellow line, sending the van packed with 10 people slamming into a Ford F-350 truck.
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Wesley Franklin wrote on May 31, 2007 12:32 PM:The value of 5 lives plus those ruined. When will the Borders be guarded? Food For Thought: IRAQ'S Learning Spanish Before Crossing to America! Page 29 of "A LINE IN THE SAND CONFRONTING THE THREAT AT THE SOUTHWEST BORDER" Senator Mc Caul's 10th Dist. Texas Website http://www.house.gov/mccaul/ If Mexico will not protect its citizens then we should block the border!
Mexican Press wrote on Jun 3, 2007 10:02 AM:Hopefully, these stories make it back to the publishers of Spanish-language newspapers South of the frick'n border, so that word spreads throughout the region down there that the U.S. criminal courts takes this kind of stuff very seriously! Now we U.S. taxpayers have to foot the cost of the court's time and this jerk's next 30 years of incarceration in a U.S. correctional facility. He'll now have a lifetime to learn English from his fellow inmates.
Doc wrote on Jun 4, 2007 7:36 PM:He gave a death sentence to his passengers; now we have to support him, provide him medical care and clothing and provide for him until his sentence, minus time for good behavior, is served. Then he goes free. Shame he could not get the same penalty he so willingly served up to the others in his care!
Concerned wrote on Oct 25, 2007 12:22 PM:I believe that the borders across the world should be dismantled. if we allow free trade for goods than we should not restrict human movement. we need to sttop blaming victims and push for a look at the system who forces people to engage in the "illegal" economy.
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