The Orange County Criminal Lawyer Blog
A man suspected of assisting in transporting illegal aliens into the United States for profit and without regard for their safety entered a plea of guilty at his arraignment on Monday.
As stated in court records, on July 23, 2017, San Antonio Police investigated a call leading them to a tractor-trailer parked behind a Walmart. Several illegal aliens were discovered standing while others were lying near the back of the trailer, and 61-year-old James Matthew Bradley Jr. was in the driver’s seat.
Among the 39 people found by police four of them were unaccompanied minors between the ages of 14 and 17. Eight of the aliens were found deceased in the trailer and two died later in the hospital. The illegals interviewed claimed the trailer carried up to 200 people during the course of the transit, and cited varying amounts Bradley had charged for the transportation services. Bradley affirmed that these allegations were true. He is being held pending sentencing on January 22, 2018 and faces a penalty as high as life in prison.