SAN DIEGO, CA — Two men who piloted a panga boat that capsized off the coast of Del Mar during a human-smuggling attempt, leading to the deaths of four people, including two children, were sentenced Monday to nearly six years in prison.
Jesus Ivan Rodriguez-Leyva, 28, and Julio Cesar Zuniga-Luna, 32, pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from the May 2025 capsizing of a boat that was loaded with 19 people.
Emergency crews responding to the incident found the bodies of 18-year- old Marcos Lozada-Juarez, 55-year-old Gorgonio Placido-Diaz and 14-year-old Prince Patel. Prince's 10-year-old sister, Mahi, also died, but her remains were not discovered until a few weeks later.
Several other occupants of the boat -- including the children's parents -- were hospitalized for injuries ranging in severity from minor to critical.
Prosecutors said Rodriguez-Leyva was acting as the boat's captain, while Zuniga-Luna was a co-captain who also fueled the vessel.
The boat they traveled in was overloaded, had no lights, and was equipped with a motor held together with duct tape, prosecutors said.
A short time after the vessel departed Mexico, its motor issues became immediately apparent, forcing them to return to shore.
But about 15 minutes later, the boat took off again and made the 11- hour journey into U.S. waters, before ultimately capsizing about 200 yards from the shore.
Prosecutors allege the defendants instructed the passengers -- some of whom did not know how to swim -- to take off their life jackets so they could get to shore quicker, where vehicles waited to pick them up.
Defense attorneys for both men said their clients undertook the endeavor out of economic necessity and that they were recruited by smugglers because of their professional experience as divers and their knowledge regarding how to operate boats.
When the boat capsized, the men made efforts to save the drowning occupants, their defense attorneys said, while a prosecutor argued that those lifesaving efforts only occurred due to circumstances the men themselves created.
Defense attorneys for both men said the deaths weighed upon them.
Gerardo Gonzalez, one of the attorneys representing Zuniga-Luna, said the incident "is going to haunt him his whole life," while Danielle Iredale, one of Rodriguez-Leyva's attorneys, said her client "wakes up every night thinking about the people he couldn't save" and was especially tormented by having a daughter the same age as the girl who died.
The defense attorneys also spoke of the added emotional toll placed on the men in the early stages of the case after then-U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem publicly requested that the Department of Justice seek the death penalty against both men. However, a prosecutor said in court that while the crimes were death penalty-eligible, capital punishment was never sought because the deaths were not intentionally caused.
U.S. District Judge Benjamin J. Cheeks noted the economic pressures placed on both men. He told Zuniga-Luna, "You were trying to do something to better yourself and help your family. ... Unfortunately, the way you went about doing that is what brings us here today."
The judge also credited them with making some effort to help the boat's occupants, telling Rodriguez-Leyva that he could have fled rather than stay behind and try to save others.
But Cheeks also noted the seriousness of the case, which resulted in "four people who are no longer here on this planet. Four people who are no longer here to hold their family members, who are no longer here to enjoy life, to breathe the air."
Both men pleaded guilty to charges of bringing in aliens resulting in death and bringing in aliens for financial gain and were each sentenced Monday to 70 months in prison.
Rodriguez-Leyva and Zuniga-Luna were arrested on the beach, while three others were arrested in vehicles that had picked up some of the migrants who arrived on the vessel, prosecutors said.
The three other defendants pleaded guilty to various charges and have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from 10 to 21 months.
— City News Service
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