A man who allegedly confessed to setting a fire that killed three of his roommates and seriously injured two other people at the Temple City house they shared a year ago was ordered Monday to stand trial.
On the one-year anniversary of the deadly blaze, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Sean D. Coen rejected the defense’s request to dismiss the case against Xuanhan Zhang.
Zhang, who will turn 65 on Tuesday, is charged with murder for the Oct. 27, 2024, deaths of Xiao Zeng, 53, Chaojin Liang, 70, and Wenxin Huang, 57, whose burned bodies were found inside the home in the 6000 block of Sultana Avenue, just east of Rosemead Boulevard.
The murder counts include the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders, murder while lying in wait and murder during the commission of an arson.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty against Zhang, who is also charged with two counts of attempted murder involving two of his other roommates who were injured.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Detective Michael Lugo testified that Zhang told investigators during questioning that night that two of his roommates collectively owed him $16,000 and said they couldn’t pay him and that he had just $4 remaining and wanted to die with them.
“He believed that everyone in the house was bad and they all deserved to die,” according to the detective.
Zhang told detectives that he bought gasoline, returned to the home, ate lunch and drank sake, and then poured gasoline in the hallway near a bedroom and lit it on fire before kicking over a bucket near the front door after one of his roommates — whom he claimed owed him $14,000 — returned home, Lugo testified.
The defendant told investigators his only female roommate, Huang, owed him $2,000, according to the detective.
Zhang told detectives he cut two garden hoses so they couldn’t be used to put out the fire, Lugo testified.
Gasoline was detected in testing on a pair of shoes recovered from Zhang, according to a stipulation presented in court.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Hugo Reynaga told reporters that a roommate of the deceased victims approached deputies at the scene and was then detained as a person of interest. He was later identified as Zhang.
Sheriff’s Deputy Maram Nesheiwat — who responded to the scene that day — testified that she unsuccessfully tried to get into the house during the fire but that “the flames were getting larger and the smoke was increasing.” She said she later went into the home, where she observed two bodies in the living room and one near a bathroom.
She identified Zhang as the person whom she had been informed had tried to cross the police tape at the scene after the fire.
One of Zhang’s roommates — whom the defendant contended that he owed him $14,000 — denied that he had ever borrowed money from Zhang, saying the defendant had borrowed $200 from him about a month earlier and paid him back. He said he had taken a shower and went to bed, then awoke to a strong smell of gas and heard his female roommate screaming and the sound of a thump before “the fire came right to me.”
He testified that he opened the window and jumped out, tried to use one of the garden hoses to put out the fire, realized it was not working and went to the window to call one of his roommates, who had been trying to put out the fire and also escaped from the window.
“My whole body was burned,” the defendant’s roommate said, showing some of his burn scars in the downtown Los Angeles courtroom. He noted that he has been in contact with his other injured roommate — who has been in the hospital — through that man’s wife.
Authorities said the fire was knocked down in about 30 minutes.
Zeng, Liang and Huang died of thermal injuries and inhalation of products of combustion, according to records from the County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner.
Zhang has been behind bars since his arrest at 1 a.m. the day after the fire, jail records show.
He was ordered to remain jailed without bail while awaiting arraignment Nov. 10.