SAN DIEGOSAN DIEGO — A 31-year-old woman who tried to elude U.S. Border Patrol agents and caused a crash in the Imperial Valley that killed two Mexican engers and seriously injured three others was sentenced Monday to eight years in prison.
Lydiana Castro, of Calexico, pleaded guilty in July 2016, itting she was smuggling the five unauthorized immigrants when she crashed an SUV near Andrade, a few miles west of the Arizona state line, on March 23.
An agent had seen the five Mexican men run into Castro’s Dodge Durango at a gas station, according to a federal complaint. About five minutes later, another agent tried to pull her over.
Castro itted she started to slow down, then decided to speed away. She lost control of the Durango, veered down an embankment and crashed into a semi-truck on Interstate 8.
Entangled with the trailer’s frame, the Durango was dragged until the semi-truck driver stopped on the right shoulder.
Two of Castro’s engers, Gustavo Sanchez-Orta and Jose May-Gonzalez, died in the wreckage.
The other three engers were taken to a trauma center in Phoenix. One of them was brain dead and later taken to Mexico on life at his family’s request. Another was paralyzed from the waist down and the third suffered serious injuries, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
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Phone: (619) 293-1876
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