Las Vegas Landlord Sentenced After City’s Deadliest Fire Leaves Six Dead

Four years after a deadly apartment fire tore through downtown Las Vegas, claiming six lives and leaving over 50 people homeless, the man at the center of it all has been handed a sentence that some may argue barely scratches the surface of justice.

Adolfo Orozco-Garcia, once the owner of the Alpine Motel Apartments—now rebranded as the “DLUX Lofts”—has been sentenced to just 19 to 48 months in prison, with eligibility for probation after the minimum term. The deadly fire in December 2019 became the city’s worst on record, killing six tenants and injuring 13 others. Despite the carnage and a lengthy investigation that uncovered appalling conditions—non-functioning fire alarms, lack of sprinklers, and tenants forced to heat their apartments with kitchen stoves—Orozco-Garcia will remain out of custody for 90 more days before he self-surrenders.

This is what accountability looks like now? Six Americans died under his watch. According to investigators and lawsuits, the conditions were well-known and preventable. Yet Orozco-Garcia dodged a jury trial by entering an Alford plea—basically saying, “I’m not admitting guilt, but I know the jury would’ve convicted me.” That’s not justice. That’s paperwork.

The sentence, handed down by Clark County District Court Judge Jacqueline Bluth, comes after Orozco-Garcia’s legal team tried to pin the blame on tenants and day-to-day managers. But Bluth rightfully rejected his bid for probation, noting that he knew about the dangerous conditions.

This man owned 30 low-income housing properties across four states. He wasn’t some naïve landlord. He was a businessman, and like far too many, he played fast and loose with human lives in pursuit of profit. It’s a symptom of a larger problem—when government regulations exist but enforcement is soft, and when public housing is neglected under the guise of affordability.

The building has since been redeveloped and renamed, a makeover that might fool a passerby—but not the families who lost loved ones, or the community still haunted by the thick smoke and horror of that night. For them, the new name doesn’t erase what happened on 9th Street and Ogden Avenue.

This case should serve as a wake-up call: real safety standards and real accountability are not optional. They’re moral imperatives. But it also asks a deeper question—what does it say about our justice system when a man responsible for the deadliest fire in Las Vegas history might walk free in under two years?