A state appeals court Wednesday rejected arguments by a man who pleaded no contest to charges of human smuggling after a traffic stop in December 2020 in Northwest Florida.
A Santa Rosa County sheriff’s deputy stopped a car Frank Leija Moreno was driving on Interstate 10, and authorities later determined that two passengers, a 14-year-old youth and a 17-year-old youth, had come to the United States from Guatemala.
The youths told authorities that their families had paid for them to cross the U.S. border and that another passenger in the car, Jackson Godinez, was a “coyote” who had helped them travel to Texas, according to Wednesday’s ruling by a panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal.
They told authorities that Moreno was driving them to Florida, where they planned to work to pay off debts associated with coming to the U.S. Moreno was initially charged with two counts of human trafficking and two counts of human smuggling.
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He pleaded no contest to the human smuggling charges in exchange for prosecutors dropping the human trafficking charges and received a five-year prison sentence. Moreno appealed, but the panel Wednesday said it could find “no error by the trial court.”
Appeals Court Judge Lori Rowe wrote the five-page decision, which was joined by Judges Brad Thomas and Clay Roberts.
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