HOUSTON (Reuters) - A U.S. jury convicted a truck driver on Monday for his role in the deadliest known illegal human smuggling case in which 19 immigrants died in a verdict that could result in his being put to death.

Tyrone Williams, 35, a legal Jamaican immigrant living in Schenectady, New York, was convicted in U.S. District Court in Houston of 58 counts, including conspiracy, harboring and transporting at least 74 illegal immigrants in the deadly 2003 incident.

Starting Wednesday, the same jury will decide whether he gets death or a lesser sentence, deliberations that could take at least a week. Under a 1996 U.S. law, smugglers can be sentenced to death if illegal immigrants die in transport.