Inset: Marcos Uriel Lara Perez (Byram Police Department). The Mississippi home Perez burned down, killing two of his roommates (WAPT).
A 33-year-old man in Mississippi will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars for deliberately lighting seven of his roommates on fire, killing two, following a disagreement between him and the others on Easter Sunday 2023.
A Hinds County judge on Wednesday ordered Marcos Uriel Lara Perez to serve 60 years in a state correctional facility for the slayings of 77-year-old Filiberto Torres and 45-year-old Jose Thomas Segura Juarez, authorities announced.
According to a news release from the office of Hinds County District Attorney Jody E. Owens, II, Perez was sentenced to a total of 80 years with 20 years suspended. The sentence was handed down after Perez pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder one week before his trial was scheduled to begin.
As Law&Crime previously reported, at about 7 p.m. on April 9, 2023, officers and fire department personnel responded to a call about a structure fire at a residence in the 700 block of Gary Drive, which is about 10 miles southwest of Jackson.
Upon arriving at the scene, first responders found the home to be "fully engulfed in flames." Six individuals suffering from severe burns were soon located outside the home, the Byram Police Department said following the incident. Five of those victims were transported to the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) for treatment of "critical injuries." The sixth victim was treated at a local hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.
While firefighters were extinguishing the flames, they discovered the body of an adult male, later identified as Torres, inside the residence.
One of the five victims suffering critical injuries was subsequently airlifted to a burn unit in Memphis, where he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead. He was later identified as Juarez.
A joint investigation between police and the district fire marshal determined that Perez "intentionally set" the fire. Investigators alleged that Perez "threw a bucket of gasoline on all the victims in the kitchen area of the residence, then ignited the fire using a Bic cigarette lighter, thus causing the structure to become completely engulfed in flames."
Jackson NBC affiliate WLBT reported that Perez started the fire after he and the victims, all of whom lived in the home, got into an argument that escalated. The topic of the argument was not revealed.
Perez was also severely injured in the blaze and remained in the hospital for several days before he was booked into jail.
"This crime was especially heinous and senseless. These people were burned alive in their own home," Owens said in a statement, Jackson NBC affiliate WLBT reported. "We thank the Byram Police and Fire Departments and medical responders for their swift response and thorough work on this case."