Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com

Bahamian pleads guilty to murder in three migrants' drowning
01-25-2007

MIAMI, USA (AFP): A Bahamian man pleaded guilty Tuesday to murder charges in the deaths of three illegal migrants who drowned after he ordered them to jump off his boat near Florida's shore at night, prosecutors said.

Zhivargo McBride, who pleaded guilty to three counts of second degree murder as well as to other charges including migrant smuggling that resulted in deaths, could face life in prison when a judge sentences him in April.

Federal prosecutors said McBride arrived off Florida's southeast coast in November 2005 with eight Bahamian migrants in his boat.

"As the vessel approached the Broward County shore, McBride ordered the migrants to jump at night off the boat and into the ocean several hundred feet from shore," the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a statement.

"Three migrants drowned while attempting to reach shore and a fourth was seriously injured when he was struck by the boat's propeller," it said.

Since September 2005, at least 17 migrants have died trying to reach the Florida coast, according to authorities.