KEY WEST -- Four years after a 6-year-old Cuban boy drowned in a foiled human-smuggling trip across the Florida Straits, a federal jury has convicted a man for helping organize the scheme and outfitting the go-fast boat that capsized.

Carlos Manuel Reyes, 38, of Miami-Dade, was not on the boat that was intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard in the early hours of Oct. 13, 2005 after a 30-minute chase that began about 52 miles south of Key West.

After an investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Reyes was arrested on July 9, 2009.

He was found guilty Thursday after a two-day trial.

Jurors were told of the tragic trip, in which the Coast Guard stopped the 33-foot, go-fast boat with an ``entangling device.'' After the overloaded boat -- crammed with 29 Cuban migrants and two smugglers -- came to a stop, the weight became unevenly distributed, causing it to capsize.

Everyone was recovered from the deep water except for Julian Villasuso, who became trapped under the boat.

His small, lifeless body was discovered about four hours later after it was uprighted.

His parents, who also were on the boat, and another person with health problems, were allowed to stay in the United States. The rest of the migrants were repatriated.

Co-conspirators Alexander Gil-Rodriguez and Luis Manuel Taboada-Cabrera, who were the boat's operators, pleaded guilty in 2005 and were sentenced to 10 years each by U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore in 2006.

Sentencing for Reyes is scheduled for Jan. 19 before Moore, who gave the maximum sentences to Gil-Rodriguez and Taboada-Cabrera. Reyes faces up to life in prison.

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