Driver in heat death of 53 migrants looking to dismiss charges

The man allegedly responsible for driving the tractor trailer that eventually became the site of over 50 heat-related deaths is looking to have the case against him dismissed. 

Homero Zamorano Jr. and his attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the case against him in September 2024. The June 2022 incident on Quintana Road in San Antonio, Texas caused the death of 53 migrants after they were locked inside of a parked trailer in high temperatures. 

According to Kens5, Zamorano and his lawyers argue that the government “possessed the information it needed to have prevented this tragedy from occurring” for two months prior to the deadly human smuggling event. The motion cites “outrageous government conduct.”

The motion states that border patrol agents stopped a tractor trailer packed with 98 migrants on April 29th, 2022 at the same checkpoint north of Laredo, Texas that Zamorano later drove through. During that April incident, the driver cooperated with agents and gave them two phone numbers for a man called “Gordo,” who hired him to smuggle the migrants. “Gordo” was then found to be Christian Martinez, who has also been connected to the deadly June 2022 incident. Martinez and Zamorano were found to have exchanged messages regarding the transportation of migrants after Zamorano’s arrest. 

The motion claims that authorities knew that Martinez was hiring drivers to smuggle migrants “left the ring to continue operating.” The semi truck used in the June incident was also found to be registered to an address connected to several previous human smuggling incidents.  

“For the agents’ outrageous due process violation, Zamorano asks the Court to dismiss his charges with prejudice or to suppress all evidence against him. Or at least, he asks the Court to dismiss all ‘resulting in the death of any person’ penalty elements, also with prejudice,” the motion states.