One of five people charged by federal prosecutors in connection with a maritime human-smuggling event that led to the deaths of four people — including a teenager and a young girl — off the coast of northern San Diego County last year was sentenced Monday to 10 months in prison.
The mass-casualty accident involved a boat loaded with 19 people that left Mexico on May 4, 2025, then capsized off the coast of Del Mar the following day.
Emergency crews responding to the vessel found the bodies of 18-year- old Marcos Lozada-Juarez, 55-year-old Gorgonio Placido-Diaz and 14-year-old Prince Patel. Prince’s 10-year-old sister, Mahi, also died, but her remains were not discovered until a few weeks later.
Several other occupants of the boat — including the children’s parents — were hospitalized for injuries ranging in severity from minor to critical.
Two defendants were arrested on the beach, while three others were arrested in vehicles that had picked up some of the migrants who arrived on the vessel, prosecutors said.
The two accused of piloting the boat — Jesus Ivan Rodriguez-Leyva and Julio Cesar Zuniga-Luna — await trial, while the other three defendants have pleaded guilty and been sentenced.
Gustavo Lara was sentenced on Monday. According to his plea agreement, Lara was arrested after four migrants who had been transported from the beach got into his car.
Lara’s co-defendants were sentenced last year.
Melissa Cota was sentenced to 21 months in prison. She also picked up a group of migrants who had been driven from the beach and was responsible for providing them food at a “load house,” according to prosecutors.
Sergio Rojas-Fregoso was sentenced to 16 months in prison. He admitted in a plea agreement to guiding some of the migrants who arrived on shore to vehicles, while also transporting some migrants from the scene in his own car.
