Federal prosecutors have charged a Los Angeles woman with transportation of an undocumented immigrant in connection with a March fatal rollover in Sevier County after a bloodstained insurance card recovered from the wrecked van connected her to the case.
Court documents allege that Manuela Gonzalez y Gonzalez picked up a Guatemalan man in the parking lot of a Los Angeles Kentucky Fried Chicken on March 23. The man later identified Gonzalez y Gonzalez as the driver of the 1999 Toyota Sienna and told investigators that she picked up two more passengers before leaving the vehicle at a local park, according to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) affidavit.
Another driver took over and picked up more people, bringing the total to 10 Guatemalans and two Mexican nationals, the affidavit says. It says the van flipped the next day, March 24, on Interstate 70 near Salina when the driver apparently fell asleep.
Some of the occupants were ejected and two of them were killed.
The Mexican nationals who allegedly were to drive the Guatemalans to different states as their final destinations, Jose Ricardo Gomez-Garcia and Fernando Pineda-Roblero, were charged last spring with transporting people who entered the United States illegally. Charges against Gomez-Garcia was dismissed; Pineda-Roblero has pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced later this summer.
Gonzalez y Gonzalez, who allegedly purchased the van in California in October, was charged Monday. She is being held in a Utah jail.
Court documents say a bloodstained insurance card with Gonzalez y Gonzalez's name on it was found in the wrecked van.
