A Mira Mesa man who intentionally set a fire in his home that killed his mother and sister and sent a roommate running into the street with just the clothes on his back was sentenced Friday to consecutive life prison terms without the possibility of parole.
Thongsavath Sphabmixay, 46, was convicted last month of murder, attempted murder and arson, and jurors found true special circumstance allegations of murder by arson and multiple murders, in the deaths of 69-year-old Bouakham Sphabmixay and 48-year-old Pamela Sphabmixay.
“We’ve really been unable to find a motive for why he did this,” Deputy District Attorney Nicole Rooney said of the defendant, who was the paid caretaker for his schizophrenic sister.
The prosecutor told Judge Louis Hanoian that the defendant’s brother didn’t attend the sentencing hearing because it was too hard to deal with the deaths of his sister and mother. She said Thongsavanh Sphabmixay had “lost everything” as a result of his sibling’s crimes.
Rooney told the jury that the defendant set the 1:30 a.m. fire on a second-floor loft outside the victims’ bedroom after they had gone to bed on April 4, 2013.
The roommate, Dennis Pham, burned the bottom of his right foot and was able to escape the flames, but Sphabmixay’s mother and sister weren’t able to get out and died a day later of smoke inhalation.
The prosecutor said the defendant made no attempt to save his mother and sister. He fled in his car, but returned an hour later and was arrested.
A lighter was found in his pocket, gas was found on his clothes, and his DNA was located on a gas can in the burned home, Rooney said.
Defense attorney Richard Gates contended that law enforcement failed to collect evidence in the case and rushed to a judgment that Sphabmixay set the fire.
Gates said police didn’t collect Pham’s clothing or check whether Pamela Sphabmixay had been taking her schizophrenia medication.
Pham testified that Sphabmixay argued often with his mother and sister, but they spoke a different language so he didn’t know what they were saying.
—City News Service
