Trailer in deadly immigrant case from Iowa

SAN ANTONIO - A sweltering semi trailer with a northwest Iowa provenance, packed with scores of illegal immigrants, became a death chamber for at least 10 as details of the apparent human smuggling operation continued to unravel Monday.

Both the truck driver, James Matthew Bradley Jr. of Florida, and the owner of the trucking company, Brian Pyle of Schaller in Sac County, said they have no idea how the immigrants came to be inside the trailer what was discovered early Sunday in a Wal-Mart parking lot in San Antonio, Texas.

Eight were found dead inside. Two died later after being hospitalized. Officials said some of the others may have irreversible brain damage from the lack of oxygen.

One of the immigrants aboard described to investigators unbearable conditions inside the crowded, pitch-black interior. People took turns gasping for air through a hole in the trailer's side. Some passed out. Others shouted and banged to get the driver to stop.

Their pleas were fruitless until they arrived at the Wal-Mart, where police were summoned by a store employee.

The trailer that held the immigrants was emblazoned with the logo of Pyle Transportation, a small trucking firm based in northwest Iowa.

In an phone interview Monday with the Washington Post, the owner distanced the company from the driver. Pyle said the driver, whom he would not name to the newspaper, operated largely independently.

'This was his very first trip,” Pyle said. 'It's a common thing in the trucking industry … He had my name on the side, and I pay for his insurance. He makes his own decisions, buys his own fuel.”

But in an interview outside his business with the Associated Press, Pyle gave other details.

Pyle told the AP he had reached a deal to sell the trailer to someone in Mexico and hired Bradley - a former driver for the company - to deliver it to a drop-off point in Brownsville, Texas.

He provided a bill of sale, but it contained no sales price or buyer's name, the AP reported.

'I'm absolutely sorry it happened,” Pyle told the news service. 'I really am. It's shocking.”

According to U.S. Department of Transportation records, Pyle Transportation has 15 drivers and 18 trucks.

Bradley, who was arrested Sunday, was charged Monday with transporting immigrants for 'commercial advantage or private financial gain,” a criminal complaint shows. He could face the death penalty.

Bradley told investigators he was delivering the trailer to its new owner, but said he was 'not given a time frame to deliver the trailer nor was he given the delivery address,” according to the criminal complaint.

Bradley gave an account to investigators that, if accurate, means he went hundreds of miles out of his way if he was to have delivered the trailer to Brownsville.

He said he had gone to Laredo to get the truck washed and detailed. But for reasons left unexplained in the complaint, he turned northward and traveled to San Antonio, rather than continuing southward along the border to Brownsville.

After parking outside the Wal-Mart, Bradley told authorities, he said he heard banging and shaking. After opening the doors, he said he 'was surprised when he was run over by ‘Spanish' people and knocked to the ground.”

He called his wife but not 911, according to court documents.

The complaint also included summaries of interviews with people inside the truck.

The immigrants, who were not named in the complaint, all described getting on the truck at various points on the U.S. side of the border.

One said 70 people already were inside when he got on, while another estimated the total at 180 to 200 people. One said they were told they would have to pay smugglers liked to Mexican drug cartels $5,500 after arriving in San Antonio.

Six black sport utility vehicles were waiting outside the Wal-Mart when the truck doors were opened, one rider said, and some of the immigrants quickly 'swarmed” the SUVs.

The discovery revealed the group's horrifying journey to the United States at a time immigration arrests have spiked under President Donald Trump and illegal border crossings have plummeted.

In what is considered the worst illegal immigrant smuggling case in U.S. history, 19 people died after traveling in an 18-wheeler truck through Victoria, Texas, in 2003.

The Washington Post and Reuters contributed to this report.