LA: Mexican Illegal Alien Pleads Guilty to First Degree Murder in Arson Deaths in Mandeville

A Mexican immigrant pleaded guilty today in Covington to first-degree murder for killing two Chinese-immigrant co-workers in a fire he set at a Mandeville condominium in 2005.

Alejandro Orozco-Benitez

A Mexican immigrant pleaded guilty today in Covington to first-degree murder for killing two Chinese immigrants and co-workers with the fire he had set at a Mandeville condominium in 2005.

Alejandro Orozco-Benitez, 30, this morning accepted St. Tammany Assistant District Attorney Bruce Dearing's plea agreement and state Judge William Burris subsequently sentenced him to life in prison for the crime.

Orozco-Benitez, of Palmar Chico, Mexico, pleaded guilty to avoid the possible death penalty he would have faced if the case had gone in front of a jury, prosecutors said. He admitted to killing Kai Zhang and Lin Mike Zhu in the fire he set about 3 a.m. on June 2, 2005, at 8 Caribbean Court in Mariner's Village.

Orozco-Benitez, the victims, and six other Chinese immigrants all lived in the three-story condominium and worked together at a nearby Chinese restaurant, Sesame Inn.

He said he set the fire because he was upset that his paycheck had been docked. He then used a cigarette lighter to set fire to a mattress on the first-floor apartment where he lived.

The condo was owned by the restaurant's proprietors.