Tyrone Williams, a trailer driver, is accused of vehicle abandoning, at the center of the nation’s deadliest human smuggling attempt. Williams let 19 illegal immigrants die in the back of his unventilated truck.

Williams ignored the immigrants’ screams for help during the four-hour journey, abandoning the airtight trailer at a truck stop in Victoria, about 100 miles southwest of Houston.

In general he is responsible for 58 cases of conspiracy, harboring and transporting illegal immigrants.

Prosecutors said Williams was paid $7,500 by a smuggling ring to transport more than 70 illegal immigrants in his sweltering tractor-trailer from Harlingen to Houston.

"Nobody sees how he really is. This is not something he would have done intentionally," said the truck driver’s sister.