Williams gets life in truck deaths trial
On his 36th birthday, Tyrone Williams was sentenced to life in prison today for his role in the 2003 human-smuggling scheme that left 19 illegal immigrants dead. The trucker was convicted last month of 58 smuggling counts. The same jury determined his punishment. The death penalty was an option for 20 counts - the overall conspiracy charge and one count for each person who died. A jury deliberated for 5 1/2 days before sentencing Williams. His life sentence comes with no possibility for parole.
Before anyone (including his attorney) sheds a tear for Tyrone Williams, how about we keep in mind the horrible, senseless, self-absorbed reality of what Williams did? Not only did Williams attempt to smuggle close to 100 illegal immigrants into this country- packed into a semi-trailer like sardines- he abandoned the trailer, which resulted in the deaths of 19 people. Tyrone Williams is no more deserve of pity, clemency, or kindness anymore than people like Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer.
All Williams had to do when he discovered that his “cargo” was in distress was to open the doors to the trailer. Instead, he abandoned the trailer outside Victoria, TX during a brutal south Texas summer day. Nineteen people literally cooked to death, which involves suffering almost beyond imagination. Williams murdered 19 people in cold blood, and if ever there was an effective argument for the death penalty, Tyrone Williams is it. (Ed. note: BTW, I adamantly oppose the death penalty…but I think I’d be willing to discuss an exception in this case.)
During the penalty phase of Williams’ trial, I listened to one of his character witnesses describe him as “a good person”. I’m sorry, but “a good person” does not participate in a scheme which involves smuggling illegal immigrants across the border in an un-airconditioned trailer (the a/c wasn’t turned on). “A good person” doesn’t abandon his “cargo” to the vagaries of a south Texas summer day while still locked in his trailer. Tyrone Williams is not “a good person”. He’s the worst sort of DUMB@$$- a person more interested in saving his own skin at all costs than taking the simple step of unlocking his trailer so his “cargo” could breathe.
Tyrone Williams had it within his power to save those human beings locked in his trailer. Instead, he panicked and left them to bake to death. If there was ANYTHING resembling justice to be had in this case, Tyrone Williams would be locked in an un-airconditioned trailer along Hwy 59 outside Victoria during the height of a south Texas summer.
Williams, a Jamaican immigrant from Schenectady, N.Y., was found guilty for his role in a botched smuggling attempt that led to horrific suffering for about 100 illegal immigrants sealed in his truck’s refrigeration trailer.
He abandoned the trailer at a Victoria truck stop after discovering that it had become a death trap. To get air, some passengers had punched holes in the trailer. The victims died from dehydration and suffocation.
Williams’ attorneys argued he never intended for the immigrants to die and didn’t know they were succumbing to the deadly heat until it was too late. They blamed the deaths on other members of the smuggling ring who overstuffed the trailer.
Williams’ family, including his mother and father, begged the jury to spare his life during emotional testimony presented at the retrial’s punishment phase.
Hmm…and who speaks for those 19 innocents killed by Williams’ criminal self-interest? Tyrone Williams committed mass murder while smuggling human beings into this country. All he had to do was to open the door to the trailer and he would have guaranteed that no one would have ever heard of him. Williams is a mass murderer who by all rights should be mentioned in the same breath as Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dahmer. For his attorney and his family to fall back on tears and emotional pleas only underscores how little they care for or even considered the manner in which those he killed endured their demise.
Nineteen people literally cooked to death as a result of Williams’ criminal negligence and self-interest. I wonder if Williams’ family, his supporters, or his attorney have even stopped to consider the horrible, agonizing manner in which these 19 innocent human beings died? Based on what I’ve read and heard, it would seem that those Williams murdered are barely an afterthought. (Hey, there were Brown People, after all….)
Perhaps Tyrone Williams isn’t the only DUMB@$$ in this sorry scenario….
