A member of the smuggling ring testified the ring's leaders were told the migrants were screaming for help, but told him not to stop the truck.
As a tractor-trailer filled with migrants rolled toward San Antonio , the driver could hear the passengers screaming for help as the heat rose in the locked trailer. The driver let his bosses know that something had gone very wrong — but they told him not to stop the truck, according to testimony from Christian Martinez , one of the men who have admitted being part of the human smuggling operation.
ALSO READ: Mechanic says he told smugglers that trailer's cooling system wasn't working Martinez was in federal court in San Antonio on Monday to testify in the trial of Felipe Orduna-Torres, 29, and Armando Gonzales-Ortega, 54, who are accused of being part of the smuggling ring. Prosecutors say the two defendants were part of the smuggling ring that left dozens of migrants locked inside a sweltering tractor-trailer on Quintana Road in south San Antonio on June 27, 2022. Officials have said there were more than 60 people inside the trailer, and 53 died — 47 adults and six children. All died of hyperthermia, as officials have said temperatures inside the trailer reached 150 degrees. The trailer was equipped a refrigeration unit, but it had malfunctioned, officials say. Martinez, 29, who is known as 'Gordo,' was a middleman in the operation, federal officials say. He has pleaded guilty to multiple charges in the migrants’ deaths. He is scheduled to be sentenced in April, and could receive life in prison. Prosecutors are using his testimony to try to connect Gonzales-Ortega and Orduna-Torres to the smuggling ring. Martinez told the jury that he hired Homero Zamorano Jr. to drive the tractor-trailer that was used pick up migrants in Laredo and transport them to San Antonio. Martinez told the jury that he drove Zamorano to a truck stop in south San Antonio so he could pick up the big rig and drive it to Laredo to pick up the migrants. He said this was Zamorano's fourth time transporting undocumented immigrants from Laredo to San Antonio. The passengers were to be dropped off at the usual spot used by the smuggling ring, on a desolate part of Quintana Road on the south side of the city. But during the trip, Martinez said, Zamorano told him he had to stop three times and to try to reset the refrigeration unit on the trailer. In two different message exchanges by cellphone, Martinez said Zamorano told him he could hear screams and loud noises from the people in the trailer. 'They were screaming and banging hard,' Martinez recalled Zamorano told him in texts. Martinez said he alerted others in the organization about the situation, but was told by his bosses that the truck wasn't far from its planned destination and to just wait until it arrived. He testified that when Zamorano parked the big rig on Quintana Road, people were waiting in vehicles to pick up passengers. Some of those people opened the back doors of the trailer, he said. 'Homero said people took off. Then, he got out of the truck and went to check on them,' Martinez told the jury. 'Then he said there's people all stacked up. There's bodies on top of bodies.' Zamorano, 48, of Elkhart in East Texas, has pleaded guilty to multiple charges in the case. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 24 and faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. Martinez identified Orduna-Torres as the man he knew as 'Cholo.' Previous testimony in the case has indicated others in the organization called Orduna-Torres 'Chuequito or Chuekito or Cholo.' Federal officials have identified him as one of two leaders of the smuggling operation, which they say has ties to Mexico's cartels. Defense attorney Edgardo Rafael Baez, who is representing Orduna-Torres and Gonzales-Ortega, sparred repeatedly with Martinez during his testimony, at one point asking the court if he could treat him as a hostile witness. Baez asked Martinez if he did anything to help the migrants. Martinez said he was at the scene when the big rig arrived. Martinez said he left when he saw others helping a young girl who was screaming that her mother needed help. “I made sure an ambulance was already on the way before I left,” he told the jury. When Baez pressed Martinez on whether he physically helped, Martinez said: “I thought I was doing something good for our people, to get them to America for a better life.”
Homero Zamorano Jr. Armando Gonzales-Ortega Edgardo Rafael Baez Mechanic Felipe Orduna-Torres Homero Gordo Cholo San Antonio Quintana Road Laredo Mexico America East Texas Elkhart Orduna-Torres Chuekito Chuequito
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