BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI

Last November, in a misadventure that turned tragic, a Cuban man tried like many before him to reach U.S. shores on a smuggler's speedboat.

The man, Andrés Oropesa, did make it ashore -- but in a coma, the result of a critical head injury he suffered when the two smugglers he was traveling with led a Coast Guard cutter on a high-speed chase across the Florida Straits.

Five months later, in April, Oropesa died at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Now a federal judge has dealt the admitted smugglers an unusually stiff sentence -- 10 years in prison each.

The smugglers, Dunieskis Rodriguez Pinero and Olierki Fabelo-Carbonell, both 31 and Miami residents, pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy to smuggle aliens resulting in serious injury, and failing to stop their vessel for the Coast Guard.

Under federal guidelines, the recommended sentence was 57 months to 71 months, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Alicia Valle. Neither man was charged directly in Oropesa's death.

But U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore, who has leeway to exceed the sentencing guidelines, opted for 10 years in a hearing Tuesday.

Prosecutors said Oropesa's death was likely an aggravating factor in the higher sentence, though one defense attorney in the case said Moore did not specify his reasons.

STIFF RULINGS BEFORE

Moore also boosted sentences in a 2006 smuggling case in which a 6-year-old boy drowned. The judge gave the two smugglers in that case 10 years, saying the six years recommended under the guidelines was insufficient punishment given the child's death.

Fabelo-Carbonell is considering whether to appeal the sentence, said Mario Cano, an attorney who represented him in the sentencing. Rodriguez Pinero plans to appeal the sentence as excessive, Cano said.

Oropesa's death did not come to public light until Tuesday's sentencing. His age was unavailable.

The Coast Guard cutter Tornado intercepted the boat Oropesa was traveling on at about 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 15, according to documents in the case. The 25-foot Mako speedboat carried 14 Cubans, including Oropesa, the two smugglers and one child.

FAILED TO STOP BOAT

The boat ''failed to stop, accelerated rapidly, and began evasive maneuvers,'' according to a criminal complaint filed against Fabelo-Carbonell and Rodriguez Pinero.

After a 90-minute chase, the smugglers stopped their boat when a Coast Guard helicopter caught up to them, the complaint said.

Oropesa -- identified in court documents only as A.O. because of privacy concerns -- was found to have sustained ''severe injuries to his head,'' the complaint said, citing testimony from the other passengers.

He apparently struck his head on the boat's bulkhead during the chase, defense attorney Cano said.

Fabelo-Carbonell went on the trip to pick up his sister, who was among the boat's passengers, Cano said.

All the passengers were admitted to the United States as witnesses in the criminal case, prosecutor Valle said.