Car-owner gets 4 years for aiding illegals

SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- The owner of a car involved in a deadly crash in Utah while transporting illegal immigrants has been sentenced to four years in a U.S. prison.

Bruno Garcia-Lopez, also known as Neftali Espinoza and Adolfo Manuel Espinoza, faces deportation once he is released, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. A federal judge imposed the sentence Wednesday for aiding and abetting the transportation of illegal immigrants.

Garcia-Lopez pleaded guilty, admitting that he knew his Chevrolet Suburban was being used to ferry people who had crossed the Mexican border illegally into Arizona to other parts of the United States. There were 14 people on board when the vehicle rolled over on a highway south of Bluff, Utah, in April 2007.

Eight of the passengers were killed.

Investigators say that 10 of the people in the Suburban were from Guatemala and four from Mexico. The driver, Rigoberto Salas-Lopez, was sentenced to four years in prison in June.