A 19-year-old was sentenced this week to 38 months in prison for his role in transporting two “illegal aliens,” one of whom suffered fatal injuries after jumping out of a moving vehicle, U.S. Attorney’s Office officials said.

Steven Beltran-Lugo was sentenced on March 11 after pleading guilty in October to conspiracy to transport illegal aliens for profit placing in jeopardy the life of any person and resulting in death.

On March 6, 2024, Beltran-Lugo and his co-defendant, Cesar Velazquez-Munoz, picked up two people near the border to bring them farther into the United States, officials said.

Beltran-Lugo was a passenger in the front seat of the vehicle, and he was on the phone with a Phoenix-based smuggling coordinator throughout the event, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“When law enforcement began to follow the vehicle, the victim aliens were told to get out of the vehicle. One of the victims then jumped out of the vehicle while it was still moving at about 45 miles per hour,” the release stated.

“The driver accelerated as the second victim exited the moving vehicle and hit the pavement, causing a brain hemorrhage and internal bleeding.”

He died at a hospital two days later.

Velazquez-Munoz is scheduled to be sentenced on March 31.

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