A former Los Angeles gang leader turned federal informant enters the Witness Protection Program and spends years on the run before being linked to a horrific 1993 apartment fire that killed a child and a pregnant woman. He was charged with more than a dozen counts of murder.
In an old photo, Juan “Termit” Romero, 57, grins with a thick gold chain around his neck and the words “Baby, I'm serious” tattooed on his chest. was recently arrested in California on suspicion of setting fire to a building. in Westlake over 30 years ago. It was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Witnesses previously reported Romero standing at the scene and yelling, “We messed up.”
The inferno of May 3, 1993 left seven children between the ages of 15 months and 11 years old and three women, including two mothers-to-be, dead.
Forty other residents of the three-story building were injured.
A firefighter testifying at a 2022 trial related to the arson described how people jumped from balconies in a desperate bid to escape the scorching flames and how the smoke was so thick they were suffocating. “It was like being underwater and trying to get something out.” One breath. ”
Romero made his first court appearance Wednesday, but did not plead to 12 counts of murder stemming from the fire.
Romero was arrested Dec. 5 and ordered held without bail, according to a Los Angeles County jail database reviewed by the Post.
Prosecutors told the Los Angeles Times that Romero was extradited to the United States from Mexico, but it was not immediately clear when or under what circumstances he was arrested.
Romero had been declared a fugitive in 2016, when detectives traveled from California to his last known address in Phoenix, Arizona, and learned he had moved a week earlier.
In the early 1990s, Romero was the leader of the Lil' Psychos 18th Street gang, which controlled a burgeoning drug business in the working-class Westlake neighborhood.
The fateful 67-unit building on Burlington Avenue was a hub for the crack and cocaine trade, packed with street corner drug dealers and wholesalers.
Drug sales were tightly controlled by gang leaders, including Romero and his alleged accomplice Ramiro Valerio, whose job it was to keep profits high.
Former drug dealer Johanna Lopez told a court hearing in 2022 that in the days leading up to the fire, the condominium's new property manager allowed the dealers to hide inside when police came to arrest them. He testified that he complained to Romero that he did not do so.
As a result, Lopez said he can't draw in as much cash as he used to.
Lopez said Romero agreed to help her “take care to resolve the issue.” Lopez testified that he warned Romero hours before the fire, saying, “This is going to be a big deal, so you better leave it alone.''
The same day, during an apartment building fire, witnesses claimed to have seen Romero carrying a garbage bag containing “barbecue liquid.”
He described Romero as looking “upset” and quoted him as saying: we failed. ”
The fire claimed the life of Lancey Mateo (1). Jesus Camargo, 4 years old. Jose Camargo, 4 years old. Rosalia Camargo, 6 years old. Yadira Verdugo, 6 years old. William Bardugo, 8 years old. Labor Verdugo, 10 years old. Rosalia Ruiz, 21 years old. Olga Leon, 24 years old. and Alejandrina Robrero (29 years old).
Two unborn children were also killed.
For years, no one was held responsible for the deadly fire because witnesses were afraid to speak out against gang members for fear of retaliation.
In the mid-2000s, Romero became an FBI informant and agreed to testify against a former gang leader in an unrelated extortion case.
Instead, he was placed in the federal witness protection program.
In 2013, the Los Angeles Police Department assigned two experienced detectives to the arson case, which had been dormant for 20 years, and identified Romero and Valerio as the prime suspects.
But their reopened investigation quickly hit a series of roadblocks in trying to obtain FBI files on Romero and Valerio, the LA Times reported.
Detectives eventually obtained an FBI wiretap recording in which Valerio reportedly declared he had the authority to order the arson and confirmed his connection to Romero.
But by the time prosecutors moved to press charges, Romero was on the run, launching a futile investigation that took police from California to Texas.
A warrant for Romero's arrest and extradition was filed in February 2017, charging him with 12 counts of murder, as seen in a copy of the document obtained by the Post from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
It is still unclear how long after Romero's hasty departure from Phoenix he fled south of the border and whether he remained there for long.
Last year, Valerio was convicted of 12 counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Lopez, a drug wholesaler who testified at Valerio's trial, was found guilty of manslaughter in connection with the fire and sentenced to 22 years in prison.
Mr. Romero is scheduled to return before a judge for arraignment on February 9th.
