Ex-Hotel Worker Pleads Guilty to 96 Fire Deaths
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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A former Dupont Plaza Hotel employee pleaded guilty Tuesday to 96 counts of second-degree murder in the New Year’s Eve fire at the tourist hotel.
Jose Francisco Rivera Lopez pleaded guilty also in San Juan Superior Court to arson and conspiracy to commit a felony.
Rivera Lopez and two other defendants, Hector Escudero Aponte and Armando Jimenez Rivera, pleaded guilty April 24 to federal arson charges. All are former employees of the hotel.
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