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The former crime victims coordinator for the Starr County District Attorney’s Office plans to plead guilty in a human smuggling operation that used a government vehicle.
Bernice Annette Garza, the former crime victims coordinator, filed a motion for continuance Wednesday where her attorney states that she plans to plead guilty.
A federal judge terminated all hearings and ordered that a re-arraignment hearing be scheduled, court records show.
Garza was arrested on Dec. 7, 2022 following a traffic stop near Victoria, Texas where deputies there discovered four people who were in the country illegally.
Federal prosecutors later charged three more people in the case: Juan Antonio Charles, Mari Cruz Rosa and Magali Rosa, who have all pleaded guilty. They are scheduled for sentencing later this year.
After Garza’s arrest, she admitted to being involved in the conspiracy with her co-defendants and “that they had made over forty (40) trips to transport undocumented aliens from the Rio Grande City, TX area to the Houston, TX, area,” the criminal complaint stated.
The indictment alleged that Garza recruited co-defendants in the scheme to smuggle people in the Starr County District Attorney’s Office’s vehicle from June 1, 2022 to Dec. 7, 2022.
Garza had been scheduled for a final pretrial hearing on Thursday.