James Matthew Bradley Jr, 60, faces charges of illegally transporting migrants for financial gain after authorities discovered eight bodies in a tractor-trailer

The driver of a tractor-trailer found packed with migrants outside a Walmart in San Antonio has been charged in the deaths of 10 of his passengers and could face the death penalty over the hellish journey.

In outlining their immigrant-smuggling case against James Matthew Bradley Jr., 60, federal prosecutors depicted the trailer as pitch-black, crammed with around 90 people or more by some estimates, and so suffocatingly hot that one passenger said they took turns breathing through a hole and pounding on the walls to get the driver’s attention.

Bradley appeared in federal court on charges of illegally transporting immigrants for financial gain, resulting in death. The Clearwater, Florida, man did not enter a plea or say anything in court about what happened. He was assigned a public defender and ordered held for another hearing on Thursday.

Authorities discovered eight bodies inside the 18-wheeler parked in the summer heat. Two more people died in the hospital. Officials feared the death toll could rise because nearly 20 others rescued from the truck were in dire condition, many suffering from extreme dehydration and heatstroke.

“We’re looking at a human-trafficking crime,” San Antonio police chief William McManus said on Sunday, calling it “a horrific tragedy”.

Based on initial interviews with survivors, more than 100 people may have been packed into the back of the truck at one point, said Thomas Homan, acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.



Officials said 39 people were inside when rescuers arrived. The rest were believed to have escaped or hitched rides to their next destination.

At least some of those in the truck were from Mexico and Guatemala, according to diplomats from those countries. Four of the survivors appeared to be between 10 and 17 years old, Homan said.

Investigators gave no details on where the rig began its journey or where it was headed. But Homan said it was unlikely the truck was used to carry the migrants across the border into the US. He said people from Latin America who rely on smuggling networks typically cross the border on foot and are then picked up by a driver.

“Even though they have the driver in custody, I can guarantee you there’s going to be many more people we’re looking for to prosecute,” Homan said.

A federal complaint filed on Monday said a passenger in the trailer told investigators he and others who had crossed the US-Mexico border illegally were guided into the trailer to be taken north to San Antonio.

People in the tractor-trailer were taking turns breathing through a hole in the trailer, the complaint said, and pounding on the walls to get the driver’s attention. Passengers appeared fine during the first hour of their journey, but people later began to struggle to breathe.

Authorities would not say if the trailer was locked when they found it, but they said it had no working air conditioning. The victims “were very hot to the touch”, fire chief Charles Hood said. “So these people were in this trailer without any signs of any type of water.”

San Antonio is about a 150 miles from the Mexican border. The temperature there reached 101F (38C) on Saturday and did not dip below 90F (32C) until after 10pm.



The tragedy came to light after a person from the truck approached a Walmart employee and asked for water late on Saturday night or early on Sunday morning, said McManus, the police chief. The employee gave the person water and then called police.

On Sunday evening, about 100 people gathered at a San Antonio church for a vigil to mourn the dead. Activists and church officials held up handmade signs reading “Who here is not an immigrant” and “No human is illegal”.

'Human-trafficking' tragedy: nine die in sweltering Texas truck Read more

Those gathered held a moment of silence, then gave speeches blaming federal and Texas authorities’ hard-line immigration policies for contributing to the deaths by forcing immigrants to take greater risks to reach the US.

“These tragedies are compounded when it’s incredibly dangerous and incredibly expensive and we push migration into the hands of illicit actors,” activist Bob Libal said in a telephone interview.

It was the latest smuggling-by-truck operation to end in tragedy. In 2003, in one of the worst cases on record in the US, 19 immigrants locked inside a stifling rig died in Victoria, Texas.

In that case, the migrants were being taken from south Texas to Houston. Prosecutors said the driver heard them begging and screaming for their lives but refused to free them. The driver was sentenced to nearly 34 years in prison.

US Border Patrol has reported at least four truck seizures this month in and around Laredo, Texas. On 7 July, agents found 72 people crammed into a truck with no means of escape, the agency said. They were from Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala and El Salvador.

