It has been a long-running story in Arizona, and now it has reached a turning point. On August 7, 2006, Adan Pineda-Doval was driving a Suburban full of illegal Mexican immigrants when it flipped over and the car accident killed 10 of the passengers.

He was evading Arizona Border Patrol agents who had identified the vehicle and were attempting to stop it. Pineda-Doval did not stop for the agents, who ultimately wound up stopping the packed vehicle by throwing down spikes on the road.

The spikes were reportedly laid down prematurely, which gave Pineda-Doval time to attempt to miss them by swerving. His maneuver sent the vehicle out of control and resulted in a fatal crash that sent the passengers, most not wearing seatbelts, out of the vehicle.

Out of the 20 passengers in Pineda-Doval's vehicle, 10 of them died, including a pregnant teenager.

In 2008, Pineda-Doval was convicted of 10 counts of transporting illegal immigrants causing death and sentenced to 10 life sentences. Pineda-Doval and his attorney were not satisfied with the sentencing and recently appealed the life sentences.

They argued that the defendant was denied his right to present a fair case in court when the judge did not let the defense present evidence regarding the Border Patrol's role in the fatal crash. Defense believes that the border patrol agents were negligent in the way they used the spike strip and their efforts contributed to the crash.

The court of appeals agreed that leaving out that evidence makes Pineda-Doval eligible to receive a new sentencing hearing, but it does not change the status of his criminal convictions.

Just because he gets a new sentencing hearing does not mean that he won't receive the same sentence of life in prison. We will update you when a court decides the appropriate sentence for Pineda-Doval.

Resource

The Associated Press: Life sentence thrown out in deadly immigrant crash (8/11/2010)

Courthouse News Service: Human Smuggler Gets Life Sentence Thrown Out (8/11/2010)