Man gets 9 months in deaths of 5 Mexican immigrants who lived in his basement

A federal judge Thursday sentenced a Novi restaurant owner to nine months in prison for hiding out five undocumented Mexican immigrants in his home's basement, where they died in a fire nearly two years ago.

Prosecutors argued the man deserved seven years for his crime, saying he used the immigrants as cheap labor in his Chinese restaurant and hid them in an unsafe basement that had no working smoke detectors and only one stairway to get out. They argued the man's wife also deserved seven years, saying she benefited from the employment arrangement and maintained unsafe living quarters for the victims — three of whom were teenagers. They were ages 16-23.

But the wife — who blamed herself and attempted suicide after the fire — was spared a prison sentence altogether after the judge concluded prison would do more harm than good.

"I see him as the leader of this crime and you as the follower," U.S. District Judge Marianne O. Battani told 50-year-old Ada Lei, who read a statement in Mandarin expressing her remorse over the workers' deaths.

"I blame myself," Lei said through an interpreter. "I pray for them every night."

Lei and her husband, 56-year-old Roger Tam, pleaded guilty last February to harboring five undocumented immigrants who lived in their basement and worked in their restaurant for $2,000 a month. Tam, records show, owned the home on Mystic Forest Drive, where the Mexican immigrants slept at night after working six days a week, 10-to-11-hour-shifts at his 26-year-old restaurant, Kim's Garden on Novi Road

Under the terms of Tam and Lei's plea agreements, the sentencing guidelines were six-12 months — but the government pushed for a stiffer punishment arguing the couple created a high risk of death.

The defense long argued that Tam and Lei felt terrible about the tragedy — maintaining the victims were more like their family members — but the couple were in no way responsible for the workers' deaths.

The fire, the defense stressed, was caused by careless smoking.

"I am deeply heartbroken," Tam said in court today. "We loved them very much. And they loved us, too ... My heart aches and feels sad."

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim McDonald argued the couple put five individuals in harm's way and financially benefited.

"This case is about greed," McDonald said. "It's about taking shortcuts, maximizing your profit through cheap labor ... he did this for years."

McDonald also rebuffed the defendants' claims that the victims were like family members.

"If Mr. Tam loved them like his own family, then why doesn't he know their names? Why didn't he pay them minimum wage? Or overtime? ... Why did he lie to the 911 operator when he told 911 that everyone was out safely?" McDonald said, further arguing that two days before the fire, Tam and his wife left the Novi home because of a cockroach problem and went to stay at their lake house.

"This is a crime about money and greed and those five men," McDonald said.

According to court documents, one victim was found in the fetal position against a bathroom wall. One tried to get out but couldn't, as evidenced by the blood streaks left on a wall from his hand.

"Imagine their suffering, your honor," McDonald said.

Battani conceded this was a difficult case with a "very tragic ending" — but concluded the couple didn't create a “substantial risk of death," that they weren't responsible for the deaths, and that they were really trying to help immigrants like themselves.

"These were not squalor quarters," Battani said of the basement living space, which had three bedrooms, five beds, a futon, stove, refrigerator and a bathroom.

She went on to say: "Mr. Tam, I know you feel terrible, truly terrible, about what happened to these young men."

Killed in the fire were Brayan Medina Contreras, 16; Leonel Alvarado Rodriguez, 18; Simeon Diaz Nunez, 18; Miguel Nunez Diaz, 23; and Pablo Alvaro Encino, 23.

According to court records, the fire started on a mattress in the basement where the five victims were sleeping. Neither Tam nor his wife was at the home on the morning of the fire. When emergency crews arrived, Tam was standing in the driveway along with a daughter, who told a police officer that there may be five males in the house. Tam said he didn't know the victims' names and that he had no documentation for them.

Police would later learn that Tam had gone to the house in a Lexus to pick up the immigrants for work that morning when he discovered the fire. Smoke detectors were in the basement but had been disabled, according to court documents and testimony.

Read more:

Novi couple pleads guilty to hiding 5 immigrants who died in 2016 fire

Authorities say all five victims were in the U.S. illegally and had been here for six months before they died.

Tam is a native of Hong Kong who came to the U.S. in 1986 and became a U.S. citizen years later. He will self-report to prison. His wife, who is a native of China, is also a U.S.citizen. The couple hugged supporters as they left the courtroom.

Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @Tbaldas.