Houston

Trial opens for accused immigrant smuggler

A truck driver accused in the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants crammed into his sweltering tractor-trailer went on trial Tuesday, with a prosecutor calling him the most “heartless, evil” member of the smuggling ring.

Tyrone Williams, 34, could get the death penalty if convicted for his part in the nation’s deadliest immigrant-smuggling attempt.

Defense attorney Craig Washington told the jury that while his client is guilty of transporting illegal immigrants, he is not responsible for the 19 deaths.

Washington said Williams, a Jamaican immigrant, would have helped the immigrants, but he did not speak Spanish and did not understand their cries.

Williams is charged with 58 counts of harboring and transporting illegal immigrants. He is the only one of 14 defendants in the case to face the death penalty, which is allowed under federal law in smuggling attempts that end in death.

Federal prosecutor Daniel Rodriguez told jurors Williams cared only about his $7,500 fee. Rather than help the immigrants, Williams demanded more money from the smuggling ring because he feared the immigrants would damage his truck, the prosecutor said.

Texas

Convicted hit man executed for murder

A convicted hit man who authorities said was paid more than $1,500 to murder a nurse in the 1980s was executed Tuesday.

George Anderson Hopper was given a lethal injection for the 1983 murder of Rozanne Gailiunas, who had been raped, choked with pantyhose, shot twice in the head, and tied naked to a four-post bed. Hopper had posed as a flower deliveryman to get into his victim’s house.

Asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Hopper turned toward four members of the victim’s family and said he was sorry.

Hopper, a 49-year-old former auto insurance appraiser, was one of about a half-dozen people convicted related to a scheme authorities said was hatched by Dallas socialite Joy Aylor.

Prosecutors said Aylor wanted Rozanne Gailiunas dead because she was dating and planned to marry Aylor’s estranged husband.

Washington

Family of brain-damaged woman keeps fighting

As the time for the removal of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube looms ever closer, a battle to try to keep the brain-damaged woman alive is being fought simultaneously in the courts, the Florida Legislature, and as of Tuesday, Congress.

U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida introduced a bill that, if passed on time, would give Terri Schiavo’s parents another last-ditch legal recourse to stop her husband, Michael Schiavo, from having the feeding tube removed on March 18.

U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon, a Florida Republican, is sponsoring a similar bill in the House, which would take up the legislation first. Weldon, who is a doctor, said he would try to rush the bill through Congress to have an impact on the Schiavo case.

The flurry of activity in Congress came the same day that attorneys for Terri Schiavo’s parents told a judge in Clearwater, Fla., that their daughter should be re-evaluated using new medical technology to determine if the 41-year-old brain-damaged woman has more brain activity than previously thought.

However, Michael Schiavo’s attorney, George Felos, said there has been no change in Terri Schiavo’s condition.

Philadelphia

University offers tuition to slain soldiers’ children

Widener University, a former military college, announced Tuesday it would offer four full scholarships a year to children who have had a parent killed in action in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The program, to start in the fall, will provide $25,000 a year to each recipient. The students will be eligible to receive aid for up to eight semesters, or until they complete the undergraduate program.

School officials expect the number of applicants to be small since many of the children of those killed in action are very young.

Mark Malmberg, a spokesman for Scholarship America, which manages about 1,000 scholarship funds sponsored by other groups and individuals, said he was unaware of another scholarship program like Widener’s.

A committee led by retired Army Gen. John Tilelli, an alumnus and trustee, will review applications and oversee the program.