Prosecutors to Seek Death Penalty for 2 Convicted in Fatal Fire : Courts: Jury finds men guilty of setting the blaze that killed five members of the Zuniga family.

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against two men convicted of setting a fire that killed five members of a family that had suffered the wrath of crack dealers.

On Thursday, a jury found Harold Mangram, 48, and Victor Spencer, 39, guilty on five counts of first-degree murder and one count of arson. The penalty phase is to begin Dec. 13.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Sterling Norris revealed Thursday after the verdicts were read that Mangram has served prison time for second-degree murder and Spencer has served time for voluntary manslaughter. He said those convictions will be used against them in the penalty phase.

Mangram’s brother, who was in the courtroom when the verdicts were read, later told reporters that he agrees that the crime was horrible but that death is too severe a penalty.

“I have been told that the intent was not to kill anyone, just to scare them,” said Billy Mangram of Lancaster.

Relatives of the victims declined to comment on whether the death penalty should be imposed, saying they are content to let the legal system decide.

Authorities said Mangram, Spencer and a third man, Frank Villareal, 29, who testified against them, set the fire two years ago at the Jordan Downs housing project in Watts to ingratiate themselves with crack cocaine dealers. The dealers sold their drugs from the victims’ front porch and were angry that the family moved into what had been a vacant unit.

The arsonists hoped to be paid in crack, Norris said.

Killed in the fire were Marta Zuniga Lopez, 22; all her children, ages 2, 4 and 5, and Margarita Medina Hernandez, 78. Other family members escaped.

During the three months the Zunigas lived in Jordan Downs, they were harassed daily by the drug dealers, family members said. They said in a recent interview that their tormentors sometimes blew crack smoke through the mail chute into the room where their children played.

The fire “was a despicable crime and it was all caused by drugs,” Norris said Thursday.

Villareal pleaded guilty to a count of voluntary manslaughter and will be placed on probation. Norris said he will face a 19-year sentence if he violates his probation.

Although some relatives of the victims criticized the plea bargain, Norris has defended the arrangement, saying that Villareal was the least culpable of the defendants and the only person able to tell a jury exactly what happened.

Villareal testified that he came upon Mangram and Spencer as they were unsuccessfully trying to pour the gasoline through the mail chute. Because he also wanted cocaine, he said, he fashioned a funnel out of cardboard and helped them complete the job.

Lawyers for Mangram and Spencer told Superior Court Judge Charles E. Horan on Thursday that they intend to argue that the death penalty is inappropriate because Villareal got a relatively light sentence.