BISBEE - A Mexican man who was arrested in Palominas in May and charged with human smuggling pleaded guilty to a lesser included offense in Cochise County Superior Court on Monday.

Jose Alberto Chavez-Rojas, 37, of Mazatlan, Sinaloa state, pleaded guilty to attempted human smuggling, a class 5 felony that carries a maximum 2.5-year prison term.

Alternatively, he could receive up to 3 years of probation when he is sentenced by Judge Charles Irwin on Aug. 27.

If Irwin accepts the plea agreement, Chavez-Rojas will become the first person convicted in Cochise County under a state human smuggling law that went into effect in August 2005.

He has already become the first person to be held without bond at Cochise County Jail under a voter-approved law that denies bail to illegal immigrants accused of serious crimes.

Arizona Department of Public Safety patrolman William Wohlenhaus testified at a May 8 bond hearing that he stopped Chavez-Rojas on May 4 for speeding on Highway 92 near the San Pedro River and found 13 illegal immigrants in his Ford pickup.

Wohlenhaus told Justice of the Peace David Morales at a preliminary hearing the following week that he had a Border Patrol surveillance video showing the 13 passengers crossing the border illegally and getting into Chavez-Rojas' truck.

For his part, Chavez-Rojas testified at the hearing that the day before his arrest, he and 14 others had been smuggled into the U.S. through Naco and taken to a safe house in Phoenix.

When he unable to pay his smuggling fee, he was given the pickup and told to follow another vehicle back to Naco. He said he was afraid that he would be hurt if he refused.

"They didn't tell me that I was going to traffic in illegals; they told me I was going to drop off the vehicle," he said, adding that he never met his smuggler in person and that he never collected any money from the 13 people who got in his truck.

Deputy prosecutor Cameron Udall and defense attorney Chris Lewis disagreed as to whether Chavez-Rojas' exchange-of-services role constituted a for-profit transaction - a required condition under the human smuggling law.

However, Morales only had to determine if probable cause existed before he allowed the case to move into Superior Court.

Chavez-Rojas was initially indicted on one count of human smuggling - a class 4 offense punishable by up to 3 years in prison - as well as one count of fleeing a law enforcement officer and one count of speeding.

The latter two charges will be dropped as part of his plea agreement with the state.