The driver of a truck in which 18 immigrants were found dead was charged in a federal court Thursday with transporting and harboring aliens. Tyrone Williams of Schenectady, N.Y., was also charged with conspiracy to transport and harbor aliens. Two others believed to be accomplices, a man and a woman, are being sought. Officials said those responsible for the deaths would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Under a 1996 law that toughened the penalties for smuggling illegal immigrants, resulting in their death, the defendants in this case could be sentenced to capital punishment.

The immigrants were locked inside the back of a semi trailer and died of suffocation and heat exhaustion as they tried desperately to free themselves. One of them used a cellular phone to dial 9-1-1, but police lost the call before the dispatcher was able to find someone who could translate Spanish. Another attempted to attract attention by waiving a bandanna out of a hole in the trailer’s back door. The vehicle eventually arrived at a truck stop near Victoria, Texas, where the smugglers apparently unhitched the trailer.

An hour or two later, authorities received a call alerting them to a disturbance there. When officers reached the trailer, four bodies were on the ground and 13 others were dead inside. A five or six-year-old boy was among the dead. Another died at a hospital a few hours later.

Thirty-nine survived the ordeal. Authorities said the immigrants were from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Survivors told U.S. custody officials that smugglers had loaded them aboard the trailer Tuesday in Harlingen, Texas. According to a report by the Associated Press, the trailer had been air conditioned while it was being pulled, but when the driver abandoned them, the container became airless and extremely hot inside.

Victoria County District Attorney M.P. Eaves said, “We want to get every bit of justice for these guys. I want this insurance for these 18 people -- that they did not die in vain. I want an accounting.”

In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Williams’ wife Karen said he told her his trailer had been hijacked and that he released it and ran for his own safety.