Four years later and 2,000 miles away, the final suspect in a meth-fueled fire that killed three Gwinnett children has been arrested.
The Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday the arrest of Ivan Gonzalez, who is charged with three counts of murder and first-degree arson, as well as single counts of trafficking methamphetamine and trafficking marijuana. Gonzalez was detained in Apatzingan, Mexico, in September before being booked into the Gwinnett County jail on Tuesday afternoon, spokeswoman Deputy Shannon Volkodav said.
Gonzalez is believed to be one of three adults cooking methamphetamine in a Lilburn-area rental home on Feb. 17, 2011, when a fire erupted and killed three young children.
Gwinnett County Sheriff Butch Conway called Gonzalez a “cockroach.”
“Ivan Gonzalez came to this country illegally where he manufactured and distributed drugs, caused the death of three innocent young children and stained the neighborhood where he burned a house down,” Conway said in Tuesday’s news release. “Then, like the cockroach that he is, he fled back to his home country to avoid prosecution for the crimes that he committed here. I am glad to welcome him back to America, where I hope he spends the rest of his natural life behind bars.”
Volkodav said that, in the years since the fatal explosion, investigators from her agency and the U.S. Marshals Service had developed leads indicating Gonzalez had fled to the Apatzingan, Mihoacan area of Mexico, his native country. A provisional arrest warrant was obtained and, in September, the sheriff’s office was notified that Gonzalez had been taken into custody by Mexican authorities.
Extradition proceedings ended Tuesday with Gonzalez’ arrival in Gwinnett.
“(The) arrest was a direct result of the cooperation between state, local and federal law enforcement agencies,” U.S. Marshals Task Force Commander Keith Booker said in a statement. “We can’t change what happened, but we can make sure that those responsible are held accountable.”
The two other defendants in the case — Neibi Brito and Joseph Alexander Perez — both entered guilty pleas in 2013 and were sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Brito is the mother of all three children killed in the fire, which destroyed the home on Lilburn's Spring Mill Drive. Bystanders rescued 21-month-old Stacy Brito, 3-year-old Jose Ivan Guevara and 4-year-old Isaac Guevara from a second-story bedroom, but they died shortly after being hospitalized.
Four pounds of meth burned in the fire, police said at the time. Investigators also found 4,555 grams of liquid methamphetamine and about one pound of “finished” meth, as well as $192,155 cash within the walls of the home.
Brito and Perez were detained at the scene, but Gonzalez fled.
About the Author
