Woman Sentenced For Role In Fatal Human Smuggling Attempt

SAN DIEGO, CA — One of five people charged by federal prosecutors for their roles in a maritime human-smuggling event that led to the deaths of four people -- including two children -- off the coast of northern San Diego County earlier this year was sentenced Monday to 21 months in prison.

The mass-casualty accident involved a boat loaded with 19 people that left Mexico on May 4, then capsized off the coast of Del Mar the following day.

Emergency crews responding to the incident found the bodies of 18-year- old Marcos Lozada-Juarez, 55-year-old Gorgonio Placido-Diaz and 14-year-old Prince Patel. Prince's 10-year-old sister, Mahi, also died, but her remains were not discovered until a few weeks later.

Several other occupants of the boat -- including the children's parents -- were hospitalized for injuries ranging in severity from minor to critical.

Two defendants were arrested on the beach, while three others were arrested in vehicles that had picked up some of the migrants who arrived on the vessel, prosecutors said.

The two accused of piloting the boat -- Jesus Ivan Rodriguez-Leyva and Julio Cesar Zuniga-Luna -- await trial, while the other three defendants have pleaded guilty.

Melissa Cota, one of the three defendants arrested in the vehicles, was sentenced on Monday morning. Her defense attorney wrote in a sentencing memorandum that her role was limited to "providing food and shelter to the undocumented people" and that she would have been involved in bringing them "further north for transportation within the U.S." The attorney said she had no part in planning the smuggling event and only took part in it out of financial necessity.

Another co-defendant, Gustavo Lara, was also slated to be sentenced Monday, but his sentencing was postponed until February.

The first defendant to face sentencing, Sergio Rojas-Fregoso, was sentenced earlier this year to 16 months in prison. He admitted in a plea agreement to guiding some of the migrants who arrived on shore to vehicles, while also transporting some migrants from the scene in his own car.

— City News Service