A Mexican teenager who U.S. prosecutors allege served as a foot-guide, or coyote, to bring four other Mexicans across the border for profit has been charged with causing the death of one of the migrants while in Cochise County, according to federal court documents.
Filberto Guadalupe Gonzalez-Tarazon remains in in the custody of the U.S. Marshal Service in advance of his Feb. 8 trial on six charges related to assisting border crossers to illegally enter the United States. The most serious charge against the 19-year-old alleges conspiracy to bring in illegal aliens for profit resulting in the Aug. 7 death of a man identified as J. O-H.
According to the criminal complaint, Filberto and three illegal border crossers were apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol agents in Naco, which is near Bisbee. Agents were guided to the group by a Mobile Surveillance Capable Camera. After the four were arrested, one member of the group told a USBP agent that another migrant had been left in the desert after he fell ill.
“(USBP) tacked where the group had come from and found J.O-H who was unconscious. Emergency Medical Services responded but were unable to revive J-O-H and he was pronounced dead,” the criminal complaint notes.
Court records show Filberto, who is also known as Filberto Gonzalez Tarazon-Guadalupe and Corazon Guadalupe Filberto-Gonzalez, was arrested less than a month earlier for being a “self-admitted“ foot-guide, the complaint states. It is unclear whether Filberto was deported to Mexico at that time or released in Arizona to await an immigration hearing in the July matter.
Fast forward to Aug. 7, and a federal prosecutor alleges the deceased border crosser fell ill after the group had walked north for two or three hours under Filberto’s direction. The group even hid from a helicopter that was in the area before starting to walk north again through the desert.
“Once they were able to see the highway, J.O-H said he could not continue on,” according to the complaint. A short time later the group was apprehended. By the time J.O-H was found he could not be saved.
It is unclear whether the deceased crosser could have survived if Filberto or the other three signaled the helicopter for help.
Those other three crossers, Elena Antonio-Guadalupe, Ana Maria Sixto-Crisanto, and Ana Ventura-Tapia, have admitted to making arrangement to be smuggled into the United States for money. They were described in the criminal complaint as wearing camouflage clothing.
Filberto was identified as the foot-guide by the three, one of whom noted Filberto was the only one who used a cellphone as they crossed. Another told agents Filberto “seemed to have a better understanding of where they were going.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Josh Ackerman requested Filberto be held without bond, arguing there is “a serious risk that the defendant will not appear” for trial at the U.S. District Courthouse in Tucson. But whether the three people he is accused of bringing across the border end up testifying is uncertain.
Antonio-Guadalupe, Sixto-Crisanto, and Ventura-Tapia are designated as material witnesses in the case. A federal judge ordered their release from custody “without supervision” over the objection of the government, who had not yet conducted videotaped depositions of the witnesses.
Those depositions, which are done under oath, are slated for Jan. 13 and 14. The depositions can be presented as evidence at the trial in the event one or more of the material witnesses fail to appear.
The question now is whether any of the three will show up for next month’s depositions.
