ISAAC and IVAN GUEVARA, STACY BRITO - 4 and 3 yo, 18 months (2011)/ Convicted: Mother' Neibi Brito and Cousin; Joseph Perez- Lilburn GA

Police: Three Children Die In Lilburn Meth House Fire


Police Searching For Ivan Gonzales

LILBURN, Ga. -- Three children are dead after, what police said, is a meth house fire in Lilburn on Thursday afternoon.
Police said Ivan Gonzales, a.k.a. John McGowan-Torres, has been charged with two counts of murder and arson. A third murder charge is pending.
Police are searching for Gonzalez. He was last seen driving a four-door silver Honda Civic, possibly a 2003 model.Police think Gonzalez may try to flee to Mexico. He may also be traveling in a green 2004-2005 model Chevrolet Trailblazer.
Police said a 3-year-old boy was pronounced dead on Thursday, shortly after the blaze. They said a 4-year-old boy and a 18-month-old girl were taken to hospitals but died later of their injuries.
Gonzales is not the father of the children.
Police said the children's mother, Neibi Brito, has been charged with trafficking methamphetamine. Brito will have her first appearance Saturday at 9 a.m. at the Gwinnett County Jail.
Meth was found in the house on Spring Mill Drive while investigating the cause of the fire, police said.
Fire officials said they believe the fire was started by meth making chemicals and the fire originated in the ground floor hallway.
Gonzalez was arrested with Antonio Cardenas-Rico, the man falsely accused of killing two young children in Gwinnett County last week.
Gonzalez was released on a false identification charge, while Cardenas-Rico remained in jail for an unrelated drug charge and an immigration hold.

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http://www.cbsatlanta.com/news/26904354/detail.html

Three Lilburn children die in meth fire

snipped....

Narcotics investigators found $192,155 in cash in the walls of the home and also found 4,555 grams of liquid methamphetamine and 1 pound of finished methamphetamine, Smith said. Investigators estimate that approximately 4 pounds were burned in the fire.
When firefighters arrived at the two-story, wood frame house a little after 4 p.m. Thursday, heavy smoke was billowing from inside. Two young children were outside and a third was being carried out through a window. Gonzalez was trying to put the fire out with a garden hose.
The fire started on the first floor of the house in a hallway between the kitchen and a stairwell. The three children were on the second floor of the house when the fire broke out.
The children - 18-month-old Stacy Brito, 3-year-old Ivan Guevara and 4-year-old Isaac Guevara - were taken to the hospital, where they later died from their injuries. Gonzalez, who is not the children's father, followed the ambulance when it left and was last seen driving a silver or gray Honda sedan. Police said he may now be driving a green Chevrolet Trail Blazer and he may flee the state or try to cross into Mexico.
Police described Gonzalez as being 5-foot-7 and 190 pounds, with short hair and a tattoo of Jesus on the outside of one of his calves. Police released a mug shot of Gonzalez from an arrest just a week before the fire.
Gonzalez was arrested Feb. 10 when he was at another house in Suwanee with Antonio Cardenas-Rico, who was wrongly accused in the stabbing deaths of his girlfriend's two young sons. The murder charges against Cardenas-Rico were dropped two days later when investigators charged the children's father with murder in the stabbing deaths.
Cardenas-Rico, who is believed to be in the country illegally, is still being held on a felony drug charge. Gonzalez was originally arrested on a charge of having false documents - he presented a fake Georgia driver's license with the name John McGowan Torres - and was released on bond. After his release, authorities charged him with the same drug charges that Cardenas-Rico is still being held on.
Smith said it's not clear why Gonzalez was released. A spokeswoman for the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office, which runs the jail, did not return a phone call or e-mail seeking comment Friday.

http://www.covnews.com/section/1/article/17625/

Macabre sense of irony here.

Three little ones died in a fire in Lilburn.

Sheriff's Deputies Arrest Second Man in Fatal Meth House Fire
Joseph Perez was arrested while deputies searched for prime suspect Ivan Gonzalez.

Posted by Scott Bernarde (Editor)
May 31, 2012 at 04:50 AM

The Gwinnett Sheriff's Department has arrested a second man believed to be involved in the Feb. 17 house fire in Lilburn that killed three young children.

The fire at 1197 Spring Mill Drive in Lilburn was determined to be fueled by chemicals used in the production of methamphetamine. Gwinnett Police have charged Ivan Gonzalez with three counts of murder, as well as arson and drug trafficking in that case. Police are still looking for Gonzalez.

The Sheriff's Department's Fugitive Unit deputies arrested Joseph Perez Wednesday night. Deputies say Perez was at the scene of the fire.

Perez has been charged with trafficking in methamphetamine and is being held at the Gwinnett County Jail without bond, according to Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Stacey Bourbonnais.

Bourbonnais said that the arrest came after an interview with Perez while deputies were searching for Gonzalez, who Gwinnett Police say may be headed to Mexico.

Deputies learned that Gwinnett Police had “received a name of Joe Perez and nothing further as being someone who was present at the time of the fire,” according to Bourbonnais.

Based on a photo lineup that identified Perez as being at the scene, Fugitive Unit deputies arrested Perez at his address in College Park.

Meanwhile, the mother of the three children killed in the fire appeared before a Magistrate Court judge Thursday morning. According to a Gwinnett Daily Post report, Neibi Brito, has been denied bond on charges of trafficking in methamphetamine. The case has been bound over to Superior Court.

http://lilburn.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/sheriffs-deputies-arrest-second-man-in-fatal-meth-house-fire

Plea deal reached in fatal Lilburn meth house fire

By Tyler Estep
As of Wednesday, March 13, 2013

LAWRENCEVILLE — The mother of the three children killed in a 2011 meth-fueled Lilburn house fire entered a plea deal with Gwinnett County prosecutors Wednesday.

#Just a few days before they were scheduled for trial, Neibi Brito and co-defendant Joseph Perez entered guilty pleas to charges case stemming from the Feb. 17, 2011, explosion that killed Brito’s children, ages 3 years, 4 years and 18 months.

#Chief Deputy Assistant District Attorney Lisa Jones said that, all told, each defendant pleaded to six counts of voluntary manslaughter, two counts of trafficking methamphetamine and single counts of manufacturing methamphetamine and manufacturing methamphetamine in the presence of children.

#Jones said both defendants were sentenced to 30 years in prison to be followed by 20 years of supervised release — in addition to mandatory fines totalling about $1.3 million. The plea knocked down murder charges in the original indictment to voluntary manslaughter and avoided the possibility of life sentences.

#“Ultimately (Brito’s) attorney had asked if we would consider that about two weeks ago,” Jones said. “I think the realization of what (potential sentences) they were facing set in.”

#Perez has admitted to helping cook and wash methamphetamine at the Spring Mill Drive home where Brito, his cousin by marriage, lived. On the day of the fire, he reportedly carried her outside while the young children remained upstairs.

#The kids were pulled from a second-story window, but all three eventually succumbed to burns and smoke inhalation. Brito is not believed to have actually helped cook drugs; she has, however, “admitted that she was aware of what was going on in the house,” Jones said.

#Brito and Perez were scheduled to face a Gwinnett County judge for trial next week, Jones said.

#Even with Wednesday’s pleas, one missing link remains in the case.

#Ivan Gonzalez, who lived with Brito and fled the Lilburn home in the minutes immediately after the explosion, has not yet been detained. Gonzalez is believed to have been the head honcho in the meth manufacturing operation and, according to Jones, the “most culpable” in the case.

#Detectives originally expressed fears that Gonzalez may have fled to his native Mexico.

http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/news/2013/mar/13/plea-deal-reached-fatal-lilburn-meth-house-fire/