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Background: In this May 3, 1993, file photo, May Isabela Diego holds her infant son Pedro in the aftermath of a fire in an apartment complex in the Westlake section of Los Angeles. Diego had to drop her two children out of a window as fire threatened their safety. Police have arrested several people for the 1993 fire that killed 10 people, including seven children. (AP Photo/Michael Tweed, File)/ Inset: John “Termite” Romero. Los Angeles County Superior Court
In a photograph of ex-gang leader-turned-informant-turned-fugitive Juan “Termite” Romero, a tattoo scrawled across his chest reads: “Baby, I’m For Real.” While that may be subjective, what is certainly “for real” are the 12 murder charges prosecutors in California have brought against him alleging he killed several children and women — including two pregnant women — by setting a deadly blaze in a Los Angeles apartment building in the 1990s.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office provided a copy of the Feb. 8, 2017 felony complaint for arrest warrant and extradition to Law&Crime Thursday. The charges, and Romero’s initial court appearance, however, were first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
The exact date Romero was extradited is not clear. Arrest records reviewed by Law&Crime on Thursday however confirm the 57-year-old was booked into the Los Angeles County jail on Dec. 5 and held without bail. An attorney for Romero, Daniel Nardoni, did not return request for comment to Law&Crime.
Romero will appear in court next for his arraignment on Feb. 9.
Romero is reportedly charged with setting fire to an apartment complex in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Westlake in 1993. At the time, the community was plagued with criminal gang and drug activity. Locals, mostly working class immigrants from Mexico and Central America, were dominated by gang shakedowns as illicit crack and cocaine sales flourished. The members of the gang that controlled the area were part of the Lil Cycos 18th Street Gang.
According to the Los Angeles Times, street corners and blocks in Westlake, and particularly where the apartment fire would eventually be set, were effectively leased by gang members to their henchmen or drug wholesalers to conduct their illicit trade. As cash changed hands and territories were established, 18th Street gang leaders like Romero would allegedly swoop in to make sure their block stayed profitable and their inhabitants loyal to them instead of police.
One wholesaler, Johanna Lopez, testified at a trial related to the blaze in 2022 that Romero helped leverage her drug trade by providing her protection in exchange for kickbacks that reached into the tens of thousands of dollars. She pleaded guilty to manslaughter and is serving 22 years.
An emergency medical technician, who refused to identify himself, grabs supplies next to the body of a pregnant woman who was one of seven people who died in an apartment complex fire near downtown Los Angeles, May 3, 1993. (AP Photo/Doug Pizac)
Lopez admitted she went to Romero with a problem in the days before the fire: a property manager on the take, once happy to let her drug runners flee into his building when police came around, had been fired.
Her profits were shrinking fast.
Lopez testified that Romero agreed to help her “take care of the problem” and then, the day the blaze was set, he reportedly warned her: “Better leave here because this thing is going to get hot.” The Los Angeles Times reported witnessing claiming they saw Romero carrying a trash bag with some sort of “barbecue liquid” as the flames engulfed the building. One witness allegedly said they could hear Romero say “We f—– up. We f—– up,” as the inferno raged.
The massive fire was so bad that people were forced to jump from the three-story building on Burlington Avenue, leaping from their balconies to escape and hitting hard pavement when they landed on the ground. The blaze ultimately killed seven children and three women, two of whom were pregnant.
Trial coverage from the Daily Mail in 2022 noted some of the building’s residents tossed their children from second- and third-story balconies; others used bedsheets to wriggle to safety as the blaze raged. The Los Angeles Daily News also reported in 2022 that smoke inhalation killed the women and fire doors left open allowed the fire to spread fast. The children who died ranged in ages from 15 months to 11 years old.
At least 40 people were injured.
Left: This May 1993 photo provided by the Los Angeles Police Department shows the scene of a deadly fire that struck an apartment building in the Westlake district of Los Angeles, taking the lives of 12 people including two pregnant women, is seen. (Los Angeles Police Department via AP). Right: A survivor of an apartment complex fire is wheeled to an ambulance by Los Angeles Fire Department personnel near downtown Los Angeles, May 3, 1993. (AP Photo/Doug Pizac)
Investigations into the blaze were stymied for years as police and prosecutors said witnesses were unwilling to speak up and risk testifying against gang members.
As the Times noted Thursday, Romero ended up testifying against one of his own bosses, currently serving life in prison, in the mid-2000s. He was then entered into the witness protection program and moved out of Los Angeles.
Though the investigation into the blaze had cooled down, a tug-of-war over case records between the Los Angeles Police Department and the FBI simmered. It had started in 2013 when police finally obtained an FBI recording in which a gang member was caught disclosing his ties to Romero and the 1993 arson.
After listening to the tapes, police went looking for Romero at his last known location: an apartment in Arizona. But by the time cops showed up, he was gone, a detective said at Lopez’ 2022 trial.
Where he went for nearly 10 years seemed to be a mystery, though investigators suspected he bounced around the southwest before departing for Mexico.
The FBI did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.
