[KHTS] – A Canyon Country man accused of fatally shooting his father after an argument in the family’s Canyon Country home agreed to take a plea deal Tuesday, officials said.

Juan Alexander Mejia, 32, of Canyon Country, is expected to be receive 15 years in prison at his sentencing in June.

“We were actually supposed to start jury trial today, but he ended up taking a plea,” said Nathan Barthose, deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County.

There were two additional charges, gross negligence in the discharge of a firearm and receiving stolen property, but they are expected to be dropped as part of the terms of the plea deal, Barthose said.

Mejia’s sentence of 15 years to life means he’ll have to serve at least 15 years before he’s eligible for parole, Barthose said.

From a previous story:

Mejia faced a preliminary hearing Thursday, when Judge Daniel Feldstern found there was reasonable evidence to try him in his father’s murder at the victim’s home on the 19000 block of Newhouse Street in Canyon Country.

A May 16, 2013, shooting of Mejia’s 53-year-old father, who goes by the same name, led to an investigation by Sheriff’s Station detectives that produced a suspect within days.

Juan Mejia, the father of the suspect, was sleeping in a garage connected to the family’s house, with the door into the house locked from inside, according to testimony at Thursday’s hearing. The father was sleeping there because of alleged prior violent incidents with his son.

Mejia kicked in the locked door, entered the room and shot his father once in the head, killing him, according to the prosecution.

He then fled the scene and buried the gun in a riverbed, according to testimony in open court.

Feldstern held the defendant to answer, citing the breaking down of the locked garage door, pointing of the gun at the victim’s head, the fleeing and the hiding of the gun as the basis for his ruling.

Homicide Bureau detectives worked with Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station detectives to find Juan Mejia, 30, of Canyon Country, on charges that he fatally shot his father.

After a special bulletin was put out by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Mejia was found the following Saturday.

The public’s help was part of the reason why deputies were able to find and detain their suspect for questioning, according to a sergeant with the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station.

Detectives believe the suspect, arrived home intoxicated and began to argue with his parents at their home.

At approximately 11:47 p.m., he produced a gun and shot his father in the head, according to a Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau detective.

“We got information that he was over in the Canyon Country area,” Nagler said. “And when we got over there, we found him and detained him.”

The crime was one of two murders in the Santa Clarita Valley for 2013.

Mejia is being held in lieu of $2,055,000 bail at the Pitchess Detention Center, according to the Sheriff’s Department’s arrest records.