HOUSTON (AP) — A truck driver already serving life in prison for the nation's deadliest human smuggling attempt was sentenced Thursday to lengthy terms for conspiracy and transporting illegal immigrants.

Tyrone Williams, 36, drove the tractor-trailer in a May 2003 smuggling attempt that ended with 19 illegal immigrants dead inside a sweltering trailer.

The trailer had been packed with 70 Latin American immigrants in south Texas headed for Houston, but the air conditioning in the airtight refrigerator truck was never turned on. As the temperature rose, the immigrants clawed at the insulation, broke out tail lights and screamed for help. The Jamaica-born driver abandoned the trailer after realizing what had happened.

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Williams, who lived in Schenectady, N.Y., was convicted in December on 58 counts of conspiracy, harboring and transporting illegal immigrants, and the jury decided against the death penalty. The panel imposed a life sentence for some counts, and the judge sentenced him for the rest on Thursday.

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