James Matthew Bradley Jr. received a sentence Friday of life in prison for the deaths of 10 people that resulted from a human smuggling operation in which he was involved.
Bradley, 61, pleaded guilty in October to conspiring to transport aliens resulting in death. He was discovered July 23 behind a Walmart in San Antonio in the cab of a tractor-trailer that had several people standing and lying inside the rear of the truck.
Bradley was arrested on federal charges and 39 people were found in the trailer, which was believed to have contained at least 70 and up to 200 people while it was being transported from Mexico, surviving passengers told authorities, The Washington Post reported. Eight of the 30 were already dead when they were discovered, and two more died in the hospital.
Bradley could have received the death penalty in Texas for his crimes, but U.S. Attorney Richard L. Durbin Jr. had agreed not to seek the death penalty before Bradley pleaded guilty, The Washington Post reported at the time of the plea.
Initially, Bradley told investigators he didn't know people were in the trailer until he stopped at the Walmart for a bathroom break and heard them banging and shaking the trailer.
The deaths were caused by faulty refrigeration in the truck, and vent holes were clogged, causing the air to be sweltering hot and lacking enough oxygen for all the passengers to breathe, the Post reported.
Besides the 10 who died, dozens more were hospitalized, and four teen juveniles were unaccompanied by adults.
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