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BERYL, Iron County — A southern Utah couple with homes in the United States and Mexico is accused of illegally transporting Mexican citizens to the U.S. to work on their pine nut farm.
Jolene Stubbs, 53, and Dayer Melchor LeBaron, 61, were each charged Monday in 5th District Court with two counts each of human trafficking for labor, a second-degree felony. Stubbs received an additional charge of kidnapping, also a second-degree felony, for allegedly taking a teen girl across state lines without the permission of the girl's parents.
The investigation began Thursday when the Iron County Sheriff's Office received a report of two boys allegedly being neglected and one of the boys "had been admitted to the hospital and treated for respiratory distress," a police booking affidavit states. When deputies went to the hospital to talk to the boy's family, they were told the mother's 15-year-old daughter was not allowed to go to the hospital with them.
"The mother was told by her employer, Joleen Stubbs, that Stubbs needed the mother's juvenile daughter to remain in Beryl at the pine nut processing area and care for Stubb's grandchildren," the affidavit states, while noting Stubbs also allegedly told the mother she would keep the teen girl if the mother did not return from the hospital.
While the rest of her family was at the hospital, the 15-year-old girl was taken to Elko County, Nevada, along with Stubbs' daughter-in-law and her five children, so she could babysit the grandchildren while the others sold pine nuts, the affidavit states. The teen's mother allegedly told police "no one had consulted with them to allow their daughter to travel out of state, nor did they give permission to anyone to take their (teen daughter) to Elko, Nevada."
As the conversation with the mother continued, police learned Stubbs had arranged for the family to be moved from Mexico to the United States "to work harvesting and processing pine nuts. Once the juvenile daughter's family arrived in Beryl, Utah, the mother told Stubbs numerous times she wanted to leave. According to the mother, Stubbs told the mother she was not allowed to leave until the debt they had accumulated had been resolved and, if the mother did go, she would be deprived of her husband and the children," according to the affidavit.
"The mother said Stubbs promised to give her money and help them establish residency in the United States if her family worked through the end of August. After the family entered the United States and after August, according to the mother, Stubbs recanted and extended the offer if the mother and her family stayed until the end of November to January," the affidavit continued.
LeBaron, the owner of the pine nut processing and harvesting operation, knew about Stubbs hiring the 15-year-old and bringing her and her family over the border, his booking affidavit states. According to the affidavit, LeBaron has run the pine nut business for 41 years.
Stubbs and LeBaron are also accused of arranging for a man who had recently been deported from the United States to return to the U.S. to work for them in Utah and Nevada, according to the affidavit. Investigators say Stubbs hired a "coyote" to "accompany the male from Mexico into the United States" and gave him more than $3,000 in pesos for travel, "which she expected the Mexican male would pay back in labor picking pine nuts in the United States," the affidavit states.
