Another person involved in the deadly human smuggling incident that killed 53 people in June 2022 pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport migrants and placing their lives in jeopardy in federal court in San Antonio on Wednesday.
Luis Alberto Rivera-Leal is scheduled to be sentenced May 30 and faces up to 20 years in prison. He was arrested a year after the deaths and is the fourth person to plead guilty to charges related to the tragedy.
The 53 Guatemalan, Honduran and Mexican migrants died after being trapped in the back of a tractor-trailer in sweltering heat in the June 27, 2022, incident — the deadliest human smuggling tragedy in recent memory in South Texas. The tractor-trailer was discovered along an abandoned, pothole-filled stretch of Quintana Road on San Antonio’s South Side.
Riley Covarrubias-Ponce, another member of the alleged human smuggling organization who was also arrested a year after the deaths, on Jan. 18 pleaded guilty to counts related to conspiracy to transport illegal aliens and transportation of illegal aliens resulting in death, serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy. He will be sentenced April 18 and faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Christian Martinez of Palestine, who was arrested in 2022, also pleaded guilty to multiple charges in September 2023. His sentencing scheduled for Jan. 4 was rescheduled to Sept. 19, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas. Martinez faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Homero Zamorano Jr. of Pasadena, who officials say was the driver of the tractor trailer, still has a case pending and has not entered a plea. He faces charges including transporting undocumented migrants in a way that resulted in serious injury and death, and the jeopardizing of lives.
Felipe Orduna-Torres and Armando Gonzales-Ortega also have cases pending related to the deadly incident.
Juan Francisco D’Luna-Bilbao, who was arrested in 2022, also has pleaded guilty to five counts, including conspiracy to transport undocumented migrants resulting in death and possession of a weapon by an undocumented immigrant. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 8.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the group is alleged to have participated in a human smuggling organization that smuggled adults and children from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.
They shared routes, guides, stash houses, trucks, trailers and transporters to consolidate costs, minimize risks, and maximize profit, officials said, and maintained a variety of tractors and trailers for smuggling operations, some of which were stored at a private parking lot in San Antonio.
Some of the defendants charged were aware the trailer’s AC unit didn’t work, and didn’t blow cool air to the migrants inside the trailer, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. When members of the organization met the tractor-trailer at the end of its nearly three-hour journey to San Antonio, they opened the doors to find 48 migrants, including a pregnant woman, dead.
Sixteen people were transported to hospitals, and five more people died there.
Today, a mural at Mission County Park honors the journey they made for a better life, and a community memorial at the site on Quintana Road displays 53 white crosses.
