2 plead guilty in fatal Cuban migrant smuggling case

Posted on Wed, Oct. 04, 2006

2 plead guilty in fatal Cuban migrant smuggling case
Associated Press

KEY WEST, Fla. - Two men have pleaded guilty to a 68-count indictment
charging them with manslaughter and other offenses stemming from a Cuban
migrant smuggling trip that resulted in a woman's death.

Heinrich Castillo Diaz, 28, and Rolando Gonzalez Delgado, 20, face a
maximum of life in prison following their guilty pleas Tuesday in
federal court. U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore scheduled sentencing
for Jan. 8.

A third defendant, 32-year-old Amil Gonzalez Rodriguez, decided to go to
trial beginning next week. Gonzalez has said he is not a smuggler but
was a migrant like the others intercepted about 4 miles south of Boca
Chica in the Florida Keys on July 8.

The charges against the three included one count of involuntary
manslaughter for the death of 24-year-old Anay Machado Gonzalez, who
suffered a head injury after the 36-foot speedboat carrying her and 28
other migrants tried to evade Coast Guard vessels. The chase ended when
the Coast Guard fired shots to disable the boat's engines.

Prosecutors claim that the man going to trial orchestrated the pickup in
Cuba by waving a flashlight to signal the boat. They say he tried to get
another migrant to act as a human shield to prevent the Coast Guard from
shooting at the engines.

"He's innocent," said his attorney, Irving Gonzalez.

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/breaking_news/15676913.htm