Man Admits Advising Driver in Temecula Crash : Courts: A passenger in the vehicular chase connected to the death of six pleads guilty in immigrant smuggling case.

A 23-year-old San Ysidro man pleaded guilty Tuesday to an immigrant smuggling charge connected with the U.S. Border Patrol chase and crash in Temecula that killed six people and forced the agency to revise its chase policy.

Eddie Rodriguez, who was on probation for a smuggling conviction at the time of the June 2 crash, admitted in Los Angeles federal court Tuesday that he sat in the front seat and gave directions to the driver of a stolen Chevrolet Suburban carrying 10 other illegal immigrants, according to Assistant U.S. Atty. Steven Arkow.

Rodriguez faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 30 on a single charge of unlawfully transporting illegal immigrants.

The alleged driver of the Suburban has been charged by Riverside County authorities with murder in the crash outside Temecula High School that killed an illegal immigrant in the vehicle, a father driving his son to school, and the son and three other students.

The driver was charged as a juvenile, but prosecutors have questioned his claim that he is 17 and plan to introduce new evidence about his age at a hearing Aug. 12.

Although Rodriguez admitted guilt and has been implicated by other passengers, he said in court that he was not the only smuggler in the truck, which crashed while fleeing Border Patrol agents.

His lawyer, Terry Amdur, said Rodriguez maintains that he was actually working for one of the passengers, a man who also has a smuggling record and was initially identified by U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service investigators as a potential smuggler.

The passenger, Alfredo Flores Talonia, was held as a material witness in the case but was subsequently released without charges, federal officials said. In an interview last month with The Times while in custody, Flores insisted that, despite his record, he had paid for a ride to Los Angeles like the others and was not involved in smuggling the immigrants in the Suburban.

It is common practice for smugglers to have others drive “load cars” and to pose as immigrants when they are apprehended.

Amdur said Rodriguez “had worked for this fellow Flores before. It happens more often than the government would like to admit. I have seen a pattern where people who are actually smugglers blend in with the actual pollos ,” or illegal immigrants .

But Arkow said allegations about Flores were not part of his case against Rodriguez. Arkow declined to comment on what the investigation had revealed about whether Flores was a smuggler or just another passenger.

Rodriguez admitted at the hearing that he had originally agreed to drive the Suburban north from San Ysidro, where the immigrants met at a motel after crossing the border illegally, but he ended up sitting in the front passenger seat giving directions, Arkow said.

INS undercover investigators staking out the motel followed the Suburban and eventually radioed the Border Patrol agents. Two agents tried to intercept the vehicle near the Interstate 15 immigration checkpoint near Temecula, then pursued the Suburban off the freeway into the city, where it crashed.

The angry reaction from Temecula residents and the accompanying furor over Border Patrol chases and checkpoints has resulted in a congressional hearing on the policies scheduled for Thursday.

Although local and federal authorities say reckless driving by the smugglers was to blame, the INS announced last week that its Border Patrol chase policy has been tightened to require more control by supervisors and increased cooperation with other law enforcement agencies.

Rodriguez served seven months in prison for a 1989 smuggling conviction and may receive a stiffer sentence because he was serving three years of “supervised release,” or probation, at the time of the Temecula incident. He is likely to be sentenced to at least eight to 14 months because of his record, Amdur said.

It was not clear Tuesday whether Rodriguez will testify against the alleged driver.