Costa Mesa Man Pleads Guilty in Fatal Meth Lab Explosion

A Costa Mesa man pleaded guilty Thursday to voluntary manslaughter and two drug charges stemming from the explosion of a meth lab that claimed the life of his teenage partner.

Jorge Chavez, 24, entered his plea through a Spanish-language interpreter as the second day of his preliminary hearing was about to begin. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Kellogg is expected to sentence Chavez to 15 years and four months in state prison on Aug. 2, Deputy District Attorney Antony Myers said.

Chavez was arrested shortly after the May 17 explosion that killed Marcos Antonio Perez, 17, who was involved in the lab’s operation, Myers said.

Myers said evidence indicates that Perez was using highly combustible chemicals to make methamphetamine in a Huntington Park apartment rented by Chavez. After the explosion, Perez fled the apartment in flames, collapsed on a walkway and later died of burns, Myers said.

The blast blew out the back wall and part of the roof of the unit. It also shattered windows at a neighboring apartment complex, Myers said.

Chavez, an undocumented immigrant from Michoacan, Mexico, will likely face deportation after serving his time, Myers said. He could have been sentenced to 15 years to life if convicted of the original charge of second-degree murder, which will be dismissed at his sentencing, he said.

Prosecutors agreed to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, Myers said, because they believed jurors might hold the victim completely responsible for his own death.

“It was clear that Mr. Chavez was involved in the production of methamphetamine,” Myers said. “The degree of the defendant’s involvement would have been the primary issue at the trial.”

Myers said Chavez was convicted of methamphetamine sales in San Luis Obispo County in 1996. The new drug charges against him are related to manufacture of the drug, he said.