Two men who piloted an overcrowded smuggling boat that capsized off San Diego, killing four people including two children, were each sentenced to 70 months in prison Monday. Jesus Ivan Rodriguez-Leyva, 38, and Julio Cesar Zuniga-Luna, 32, had pleaded guilty in April to human smuggling resulting in death after the boat they captained went down roughly 200 yards from shore.
According to Courthouse News, U.S. District Judge Benjamin Cheeks handed down the sentences in San Diego, rejecting arguments that the men's personal hardships should soften the outcome. Cheeks found that the defendants' circumstances did not erase the consequences of their actions and said plainly that actions and accidents have consequences, per the same account. The judge also criticized the men for piloting an overcrowded boat with a malfunctioning motor.
Rodriguez-Leyva and Zuniga-Luna were hired by smugglers to ferry 19 people, including themselves, from Popotla, a small coastal town in Mexico, to San Diego on May 5, 2025, the report notes. Prosecutors told the court that Rodriguez-Leyva served as the boat's captain while Zuniga-Luna acted as co-captain and also fueled the vessel, according to NBC 7 San Diego. The vessel was overloaded, had no lights, and ran on a motor held together with duct tape, prosecutors said.
An 11-Hour Voyage That Ended in Tragedy
The boat made an 11-hour journey through rough seas before its motor failed and it capsized about 200 yards from shore, per the same NBC 7 account. The capsizing killed two men from Mexico and two children from India, Courthouse News reports. Apprehended immigrants told investigators that passengers were instructed to remove their life vests as they approached shore.
Neither defendant had a prior criminal record, according to Courthouse News. Prosecutor Sean Van Demark argued that the men should not receive lighter sentences simply for trying to help people amid conditions they themselves helped create, while Assistant Federal Defender Danielle Iredale said the defendants' circumstances merited consideration. Defense advocate Gerardo Gonzalez described Zuniga-Luna as one of the most decent people he had met and said Zuniga-Luna's existence was defined by intergenerational poverty.
In addressing the court, Zuniga-Luna said the incident was one of the most painful experiences of his life and apologized to the United States and everyone affected by his actions, per Courthouse News. U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon said the sentences reflected the consequences of placing greed above human life.
Noem Had Pushed for Death Penalty
The case drew national attention last year when then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called on the Justice Department to seek the death penalty against the two men, a demand reported by The San Diego Union-Tribune. A prosecutor later said capital punishment was never sought because the deaths were not intentionally caused, according to NBC 7 San Diego. Federal law under 8 U.S.C. 1324 allows for a penalty of death or imprisonment for any term of years or life when such a violation results in death.
Three other people were sentenced for their roles in transporting the immigrants in a related case, the Department of Justice said, with prison terms ranging from 10 to 21 months, per NBC 7 San Diego. The 70-month terms for Rodriguez-Leyva and Zuniga-Luna still fall within a pattern seen in other San Diego federal cases, where boat captains involved in multiple migrant deaths have generally received less than five years, the Union-Tribune reports. The harshest sentence identified for a Southern District of California smuggling case involving deaths over the past decade was an 18-year term given to a captain responsible for three deaths near Point Loma in May 2021, according to The Spokesman-Review. In a separate 2022 Imperial Beach panga capsizing that killed three people, the two cousins piloting that boat were also sentenced to less than five years each.
Maritime Smuggling Remains a Deadly Route
The Del Mar disaster was not an isolated tragedy along the San Diego coastline. A 57-year-old woman from Mexico drowned in January 2025 after a suspected smuggling boat capsized in heavy surf off Ocean Beach, sweeping more than 20 people into the water, the Union-Tribune reported. Border Patrol recorded 589 maritime smuggling incidents and 1,375 apprehensions in fiscal year 2024, compared with 736 incidents and 1,328 apprehensions the prior year, and reported one death in a maritime smuggling incident in 2024 versus 13 in 2023.
Coast Guard officials have said water crossings in the San Diego area fell 50 percent after the president declared a national emergency in March 2025, with Capt. Chris Cumberland saying illegal immigration by sea dropped 60 percent compared with the previous year, per NBC 7 San Diego's separate coverage. Family members of the two captains had earlier spoken out through Mexican media; a post from X account MeganoticiasLPZ described the mothers of Zuniga Luna and Rodriguez Leyva, fishermen from Baja California Sur, breaking their silence to demand that authorities intervene.
