IMPERIAL BEACH, Calif. _ A federal judge on Monday sentenced a Mexican man charged with human smuggling to nearly seven years in prison in connection with the deaths of two people he illegally brought across the border in a small boat earlier this year.
Julio Cesar Murillo-Arce, 42, abandoned the vessel in the cold, predawn hours Feb. 3 off the coast of Imperial Beach, leaving six people stranded in high surf. The boat capsized shortly thereafter, and only four of the undocumented immigrants made it to shore.
Border Patrol agents found Mexican citizens Ramon Ponce-Rodriguez and Modesto Rodriguez-Ballesteros unresponsive in the water. Medics took both men to hospitals, where Ponce-Rodriguez, 62, was pronounced dead on arrival.
Rodriguez-Ballesteros, 44, was hospitalized in grave condition and later died.
Murillo-Arce pleaded guilty in June to four counts involving the smuggling of undocumented immigrants, including two counts of attempted smuggling resulting in death.
U.S. District Judge Marilyn Huff sentenced him Monday to serve 6 { years on the new charges, plus five months for violating the terms of his release on a previous federal conviction that prosecutors said also involved smuggling people into the country on a boat.
According to prosecutors, Huff repeatedly called the case tragic, saying it was "one of the most egregious that the court has seen in many years."
Robert Brewer, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California, said in a news release that Murillo-Arce showed a "callous disregard for the passengers he attempted to smuggle."
According to prosecutors, court documents and Border Patrol officials, agents spotted the boat around 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 3 off the coast of Imperial Beach and tracked it as it headed north. Officials said the boat appeared to have engine problems and at least two people were seen entering the water and swimming toward shore. A short time later, the vessel capsized in heavy surf.
Border Patrol agents found Murillo-Arce first after he swam to shore. Agents later found the other four people who made it to shore, including one who identified Murillo-Arce as the smuggler.
According to the criminal complaint, each of the undocumented immigrants paid between $10,000 and $13,500 to be smuggled across the border.
A week after the double-fatal smuggling operation in Imperial Beach, three sisters from Oaxaca died in the Laguna Mountains during an ill-fated border crossing.
Two brothers from Chihuahua pleaded guilty in August to federal smuggling and conspiracy charges in the sisters' deaths. They're expected to be sentenced next month.
On Aug. 2, two men were found dead in the water in Ocean Beach near a capsized panga in another suspected smuggling incident gone awry.
