Jury votes death for 2 in killings

A federal jury on Tuesday ordered that two San Fernando Valley businessmen from the former Soviet Union be sentenced to death for kidnapping and strangling five people while extorting their families for ransom and then dumping the victims’ bodies in a Northern California reservoir.

The jury took just two hours to reach its verdict -- the first federal death penalty sentence in Los Angeles since 1950, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Iouri Mikhel, 42, and Jurijus Kadamovas, 40, showed no emotion as the verdict was read. The two were convicted last month of luring victims to their upscale Valley homes in 2001 and 2002 and holding them for ransom, then strangling them and discarding their bodies in a reservoir in the Sierra foothills.

Nancy Muscatel, who had heard detailed testimony on her husband Meyer’s murder, clasped her daughter’s hand and wept. Outside the downtown L. A. courtroom, relatives of victim Alexander Umansky said the pair “got what they deserved.” They said the two men, who allegedly had ties to Russian organized crime, thought they could beat the system.

U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian is to impose the sentences March 12.

Dale Rubin, an attorney for Mikhel, said the jury did not deliberate on mitigating factors -- such as his client’s troubled upbringing -- as they were supposed to do. “They were sending Mikhel a message: ‘We didn’t believe anything he said,’ ” Rubin said.

Mikhel had taken the stand, conceding that he laundered money but denying that he had anything to do with the kidnapping-for-ransom scheme.

His testimony was struck from the record when he refused to be cross-examined by prosecutors. His attorneys have said he tried to kill himself several times in detention and wanted the death penalty if convicted.

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joe.mozingo@latimes.com