Two mothers charged with causing the deaths of five children left unattended during a house fire today pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter.

Furaha T. Love of Hazelwood and Shakita Mangham of Verona entered the pleas before Allegheny County Judge David R. Cashman.

Ms. Mangham also entered a no contest plea to a charge of filing a false police report.

The district attorney's office dropped reckless endangerment charges regarding two surviving children.

Sentencing is set for May 22.

Killed in the June 12 blaze in Larimer were three of Ms. Mangham's children: Daekia Holyfield, 7, Dezekiah Holyfield, 3, and Cedano Holyfield Jr., 4; and two of Ms. Love's sons, Azequel Rankin, 5, and Andre Rankin, 6. Ms. Mangham's son, Jevon Irwin, who was 8, and Ms. Love's son, Huedon Chambliss, who was also 8, escaped the burning house unharmed.

The mothers left their younger children in the care of their 8-year-old boys and had gone to a local bar when the fire occurred, police alleged.

Initially, Ms. Mangham told police she'd asked a neighborhood girl to baby-sit before she and Ms. Love went out. Police said she later admitted that explanation was a lie to avoid possible arrest before the children's funeral.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.