Ex-LA gang informant 'Termite' extradited from Mexico to face murder charges in 1993 fire
Juan "Termite" Romero was once a leader of the 18th Street gang, shaking down drug dealers on the streets of Westlake in the 1990s. After being targeted for death by his imprisoned boss, Romero became the government's star witness in a racketeering case that sent dozens of his associates to prison.
Romero disappeared into witness protection, living under an assumed name far from his old neighborhood. But Los Angeles County prosecutors have brought the 57-year-old out of hiding, alleging he set fire in 1993 to a crowded apartment building, killing seven children and three women, two of them pregnant.
Romero appeared Wednesday morning in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom, where he deferred entering a plea to 12 counts of murder. Dressed in an orange jumpsuit, the short man with thinning hair hardly resembled the gang member who stared into a
