District Judge Dickran Tevrizian formally sentenced Jurijus Kadamovas, 40, from Lithuania and Iouri Mikhel, 41, from St. Petersburg, Monday. A jury found the two guilty in February for the ransom killings of four men and a woman in 2001-2002 and for subsequent money laundering.
The local Orange County Register newspaper said the convicts strangled their victims after receiving a $1.2 million ransom from their relatives and disposed of their bodies in a local reservoir.
Defense attorneys said they would appeal the ruling.
The newspaper quoted the defense as saying during the trial that their clients had grown up under a Communist regime, and became criminals in order to survive.
In addition to Mikhel and Kadamovas, another defendant in the case, Ukrainian-born Piotr Krylov, may also face capital punishment if found guilty. Two other suspects, including Kadamovas's girlfriend, are cooperating with investigators.
