Los Angeles - Three people with alleged
ties to a nortorious gang have been arrested in what prosecutors
called the deadliest arson in California history, the
intentionally set 1993 fire at a Los Angeles apartment building
that killed 12 people, including two unborn babies.
An unnamed fourth suspect wanted in connection with the
nearly quarter-century old case has fled the country,
authorities said at a press conference on Monday, and remains a
fugitive.
"This is a crime that resonates with every parent and really
every human being," Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie
Lacey said at a press conference.
Ramiro Valerio, 43, and Joseph Monge, 41, were taken into
custody on Friday and were each expected to face 12 counts of
murder with special circumstances that could make them eligible
for the death penalty, Lacey said.
Johanna Lopez, 51, was arrested in 2011 and was awaiting
trial in the case and will be re-arrested on charges of murder
with special circumstances.
Valerio's attorney, Gregory Rubel, said that his client was
"not involved" in the fire and would ultimately be cleared of
the charges.
"He's been arrested six times in the last 24 years and each
time he's been released. The same thing is going to happen in
this case," he said.
Rubel said that other suspects were arrested in connection
with the arson in the late 1990s but that charges were
ultimately dismissed against them.
"It's a horrible case but at same time they've never been
able to prosecute it," he said.
Authorities say witnesses who had been too afraid of the
powerful 18th Street gang to give evidence in 1993 were now more
willing to testify.
Lacey said prosecutors believe the blaze in the city's
Westlake neighborhood was started by members of the gang in May
of 1993 to intimidate the apartment manager and others who
sought to drive drug dealers from the property.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the blaze broke out on
the second floor of the building, which housed mostly central
American immigrants, spreading quickly because at least several
fire doors had been propped or nailed open.
The paper said that as flames raced through the building
mothers were seen throwing their babies out of windows in hopes
of saving them as other residents formed human chains to save
those trapped on upper floors.
Among the victims who perished were seven children and three
adults, two of them women in late-term pregnancy.