TUCSON – A 21-year-old Phoenix man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after he pleaded guilty in July to a fatal crash on the Tohono O’odham Nation.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Scott H. Rash sentenced Kevin Rojo-Barron to prison for conspiracy to transport illegal aliens for profit resulting in death and transportation of illegal aliens for profit resulting in death.

On March 2, 2023, near Why, on the Tohono O’odham Nation, the Tohono O’odham Police Department and U.S. Border Patrol responded to a 911 call after two vehicles collided at the intersection of State Route 86 and Federal Route 1, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona.

Rojo-Barron was speeding as he drove a vehicle traveling north on FR 1 and failed to yield at a stop sign, striking a vehicle headed east on SR 86, authorities said.

All three Tohono O’odham Nation members in the vehicle on SR 86 died in the crash.

“Further investigation showed that Rojo-Barron was smuggling four undocumented noncitizens and had an AR-15 style rifle in the vehicle at the time of the crash,” the release stated. “One of the undocumented noncitizens died due to the crash, and another was permanently injured.”  

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