Illegal alien smuggler found guilty in deadly SoCal desert crash
AP State | Wednesday, Apr 23 2008 3:20 AM
A jury found a man responsible for a head-on crash in the Southern California desert that killed two suspected illegal aliens he was allegedly smuggling into the United States.
Daniel Cardiola Lopez, 36, of Mexico was found guilty Tuesday of two counts of murder, two counts of vehicular homicide with gross negligence causing great bodily harm and assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the June 2007 crash.
Lopez was fleeing Border Patrol agents on a two-lane road near Ocotillo, a desert hamlet about 70 miles east of San Diego, when he swerved into oncoming traffic and slammed into another vehicle, authorities said.
Five other passengers in the truck Lopez was driving were seriously injured, as were the two occupants of the other vehicle, Deputy District Attorney Leonard Trinh said.
Deputy Public Defender Dawn Beebee had argued that the crash occurred when spike strips Border Patrol agents placed in the roadway to stop Lopez caused him to lose control of the truck.
Lopez could be sentenced to life in prison at a scheduled June 6 hearing, prosecutors said.
http://www.bakersfield.com/119/story/425073.html>
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