2 Plead No Contest in Riot Slaying : Violence: The men are sentenced to prison on reduced charges of involuntary manslaughter. Their victim was a street evangelist who tried to stop looters.

Two men charged with murder in the last major case of the Los Angeles riots each pleaded no contest and were sentenced to prison Monday for the fatal beating of a middle-aged street evangelist who had tried to stop looters at a Hollywood drugstore.

Fidel Ortiz, 22, and Leonard Sosa, 24, both former warehouse workers for a Dodger Stadium concessionaire, entered the pleas to reduced charges of voluntary manslaughter on the same day they were to go on trial for the April 30, 1992, attack on Wallace Tope Jr. It was one of only three murder cases stemming from the riots, in which 55 people were killed.

Superior Court Judge Carlos Moreno sentenced Ortiz to an 11-year prison term and Sosa to a six-year term under a plea agreement that angered members of Tope’s family.

Tope was rendered unconscious by the beating at a mini-mall on Sunset Boulevard near Western Avenue on the second day of the civil disturbances and remained in a coma for 19 months before he died at a nursing home last November at the age of 54. When he died, the original attempted-murder charges against Ortiz and Sosa were upgraded to murder.

Sosa received a lighter sentence than Ortiz because he played a lesser role in the attack on Tope, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Ken Lamb and Sosa’s lawyer, Marvin L. Part.

Sosa, who like Ortiz has already served two years of his sentence, will probably be freed in about 18 months, Part said.

“We felt that was a good disposition under the circumstances,” the defense lawyer said.

Ortiz was given the maximum sentence for voluntary manslaughter. With time off for good behavior and time served, he could be released in about four years.

The evangelist’s brother, Dennis, an assistant high school principal in Kern County, said in a telephone interview that the sentences are “too light for murdering my brother.”

“Our justice system has become a legal system concerned with rules and regulations rather than justice,” he said.

Lamb said the plea arrangements were offered to Sosa and Ortiz because the injuries to Tope occurred during an altercation between Ortiz and Tope, and because witnesses disagreed on exactly what happened.

At least one witness told police Tope was beaten for several minutes; another said the beating was over in seconds.

“It is clear there was some kind of argument between Ortiz and Tope, and Tope was kicked in the head,” Lamb said. “Numerous (other) people ran (toward Tope) and possibly could have contributed to his injuries.”

Tope, who had a history of evangelical missions, had driven alone to Hollywood with religious pamphlets and flyers in hopes of helping to stop the violence after watching riot scenes on television.

When looters, including Ortiz and Sosa, took goods from a Sav-On drugstore, Tope confronted Ortiz, telling him he would go to hell if he continued lawbreaking, according to court records.

Witnesses’ statements indicated that Tope and Ortiz exchanged words before Ortiz punched Tope. The evangelist was hurrying toward his car, the witnesses said, when Sosa ran to Ortiz’s aid, helping him to chase Tope down and pummel and kick him.

The riots flared after not-guilty verdicts in the trial of four Los Angeles police officers in the March, 1991, beating of Rodney G. King.

About 30 felony cases were filed in Los Angeles County as a result of the disturbances, the most celebrated being the attempted-murder case against several men who attacked trucker Reginald Denny. The other murder cases involved the beating and shooting of a motorcyclist in Long Beach, for which six men are serving prison sentences, and the stabbing death of a Pasadena woman the same day Tope was attacked. Two men are awaiting sentencing in that case after being convicted last month of some of the charges.