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Olga Franco, 24, convicted of driving the van in the Cottonwood school bus crash that killed four students, was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison. She can expect to see her time cut by one-third to about 100 months -- 8 years and 4 months -- for good behavior, officials said. Franco sat stone-faced when she heard the sentence. Judge David Peterson, sitting specially in Lyon County, gave a lengthy explanation to families of how the law applied in the case and how he arrived at the sentence. “I don’t imagine I have pleased anyone with this sentence. I...

New information could help the woman charged in a deadly school bus accident. Her attorney said there is new DNA evidence that could clear Olga Franco as the driver of a van that crashed into a school bus in February killing four children. At a hearing Friday, attorneys for Franco said they have DNA evidence that proves a man was driving the van. They said DNA taken from the driver's side airbag shows it came from an unidentified male. Franco has told police that her boyfriend, Francisco Sangabriel-Mendoza, was driving the van. Police have yet to locate him.

The trial of a woman charged in a fatal school bus crash has been moved from Marshall to Willmar. Lyon County District Judge David Peterson granted the change of venue Wednesday. He also scheduled the trial of Olga Marina Franco del Cid of Minneota to begin July 28 at the Kandiyohi County courthouse. Four children from Lakeview School in Cottonwood died when a van ran a stop sign and hit their bus Feb. 19. Prosecutors say Franco, 34, was driving the van, but she claims it was her boyfriend. He hasn't been found. In his order Wednesday, the judge wrote...

The lawyer for Olga Franco, the woman charged in the fatal Cottonwood, Minn school bus crash, has filed a motion demanding a speedy trial for his client. Olga Marina Franco del Cid, of Minneota, has been in the Lyon County Jail since her arrest on February 20. Franco is charged with four counts of criminal vehicular homicide in the deaths of brother Hunter and Jesse Javens, Reed Stevens, an Emilee Olson. In filing the motion, attorney Manuel Guerrero cites the length of Franco’s jail stay, and says prosecutors have failed to return phone calls and provide him with their evidence...

A federal agent testified this morning that he has learned since the fatal Cottonwood, Minn., school bus crash that the woman accused of causing the accident was not alone in her van. Olga Franco's boyfriend was with her in the van at the time of the Feb. 19 crash, said Jeremy Christenson, a special agent with Immigration, Customs and Enforcement. Four schoolchildren died in the accident. Christenson said he learned this through interviews he conducted. "I did learn that, yes," Christenson said under cross-examination from Franco's attorney Manuel Guerrero. Guerrero asked the court to depose three witnesses so he could...

The lawyer for Olga Marina Franco del Cid wants a change of venue. Manuel Guerrero filed notice with the Lyon County District Court Administrator's office. Franco is charged with four counts of criminal vehicular homicide for the deaths of four students on February 19. Prosecutors say Franco was driving a minivan on Lyon County Road 24. According to the complaint, she blew through a stop sign and hit the bus. Franco apparently doesn't have a driver's license. Immigration and Customs Exchange officials also say Franco is in the country illegally and used a false identity while in the U.S. During...

Family members of the woman charged with causing the fatal school bus crash last month near Cottonwood say she left her native Guatemala two years earlier, hoping to make a better life for her family. The parents of Olga Franco tell the St. Paul Pioneer Press that she was sending them small amounts of money to help supplement about five dollars a day they earn growing corn. Franco is charged with four counts of criminal vehicular homicide in the crash that killed four students aged 9 to 13. Family members recall her as a loving daughter who helped care for...

The way Olga Franco tells it, she was a passenger the afternoon of Feb. 19, heading toward work in Cottonwood and arguing with her boyfriend, who was behind the wheel, when she saw the school bus. She yelled at him to be careful, but the van's brakes weren't working well, she said, and they went through the intersection and into the bus. Franco is now charged with criminal vehicular homicide in the deaths of four schoolchildren who were on the bus and has become a flashpoint in the debate on undocumented immigrants. Speaking publicly Tuesday for the first time, Franco,...

U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann has written to U.S. immigration officials to determine how an illegal immmigrant allegedly was able to cause last week's fatal school bus crash in Cottonwood. Bachmann asks the assistant secretary of Homeland Security in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Julie Myers, how federal and local law enforcement can ensure such a thing never happens again. Bachmann also raises questions with ICE about the suspect, Olga Martinez Franco, who had gone by the alias Alianiss Morales. A woman using that name was ticketed for driving without a license in Montevideo in 2006. Bachmann says she wants...

MARSHALL, MINN. - The 23-year-old woman whose van collided with a school bus was arrested Thursday afternoon and booked on suspicion of criminal vehicular operation in connection with the crash that killed four children near Cottonwood, Minn. Alianiss Morales, of Minneota, Minn., is expected to be charged and make her first court appearance this morning, said Lyon County Attorney Rick Maes. The Minnesota State Patrol's investigation of the crash continued Thursday, and Maes said much of the paperwork from the investigation was already on his desk. "One [part of the investigation] is whether she was operating the vehicle in a...

The local Fox affiliate in the Twin Cities finally confirms what the local papers didn’t seem to want to mention about the horrible school bus accident that killed four children. It didn’t have to happen: Authorities have confirmed that the the driver of the van that struck the school bus that killed 4 students on Tuesday is an illegal alien. Officials at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement are checking to see where she came from and how long she’s been in Minnesota. FOX 9 has also learned that the name she gave to police, Alainiss Morales, is an alias. 23-year-old...

COTTONWOOD, Minn. -- Authorities have confirmed that the the driver of the van that struck the school bus that killed 4 students on Tuesday is an illegal alien. Officials at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement are checking to see where she came from and how long she's been in Minnesota. FOX 9 has also learned that the name she gave to police, Alainiss Morales, is an alias.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has uncovered information on the driver of the van that hit the school bus. 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has learned through state license records and state staff that the driver of the van does not have a valid driver's license. Alianiss Morales, of Motevideo, was convicted of driving without a license two years ago, according to police and Chippewa County Court administration staff. Morales was pulled over, according to the clerk of court's office, after a report of an an erratic driver. The officer found she was driving in Motevideo without a license. The Minnesota State Patrol will...

A Minneota woman will make her first court appearance this morning to face charges stemming from Tuesday's school bus crash in southwestern Minnesota. At a morning briefing before the court appearance, Lyon County Attorney Richard Maes described the charges being brought against Alianiss N. Morales, 23, of Minneota: Four counts of criminal vehicular homicide One count of a stop-sign violation One count of having no driver's license The first four counts are felonies that carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. The fifth and sixth counts are misdemeanors that carry a maximum penalty of...

COTTONWOOD, Minn. — Authorities say four students have been killed in a school bus crash in southwestern Minnesota. Minnesota State Patrol Lieutenant Mark Peterson says the students died when their Lakeview School bus was hit by a van this afternoon on a highway near Cottonwood, about 2 hours southwest of Minneapolis. The bus then collided with a pickup and tipped on its side. • Click here for photos. The victims weren't immediately identified, and their ages weren't immediately given. At least 14 people were hurt. The school bus was carrying 40 people at the time. The Marshall Independent reported that...

COTTONWOOD, MINN. -- The van driver involved in the school bus crash in southwestern Minnesota that killed four students was charged today, and federal authorities say she is using an alias and in the United States illegally. The woman, who is using the name Alianiss Nunez Morales, is charged with four counts of criminal-vehicular homicide, running a stop sign and driving without a license at the time of the crash Tuesday afternoon near Cottonwood. - - clip - - Federal immigration investigator Claude Arnold said this morning that Morales is not the woman's name, and she is not revealing her...

Minneapolis Crash Kills 4 Children MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ― A woman who authorities say is in the country illegally and using an alias was charged Friday with four counts of criminal vehicular homicide and two lesser charges in a school bus crash that killed four children, CBS station WCCO-TV reported.   A woman who identified herself as Alianiss Nunez Morales, 23, of Minneota, was driving a van that failed to stop at a stop sign Tuesday before hitting a bus carrying 28 students from Lakeview School, Lyon County Attorney Richard Maes said. The accident happened near the small town of Cottonwood, in...

St. Paul, Minn. — A public records search turned up a 23-year-old woman named Alianiss Nunez Morales in Chester, Connecticut. The records indicate her Social Security card was issued in Puerto Rico. Alianiss is not a common name. Two Spanish linguistics professors contacted for this story say they've never heard of it. They say it could be a name created by parents. Friday the prosecutor in the Cottonwood case said immigration officials went to Puerto Rico to talk to the grandmother of a person named Alianiss Nunez Morales. They showed her a mug shot of the woman now sitting in...

The van driver who witnesses says hit a school bus, killing four children, appeared in court Friday. She gave her name as Alianiss Nunez Morales, but authorities say this is not her real name. There's a brisk trade in false documents in the state, spurring some legislators to call for crackdowns....

U.S. immigration officials say today they've determined the identity of the 24-year-old woman who drove a van into a school bus, killing four children last week in southwestern Minnesota. The driver has been identified as Olga Marina Franco and she's from Guatemala, according to Gail Montenegro, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Chicago. Franco has been charged with four counts of criminal vehicular homicide stemming from the Feb. 19 crash near Cottonwood. Witnesses say she blew through a stop sign, jumped over some railroad tracks and hit the rear of the bus, which tipped over and...