SAN JOSE — Three San Jose gang members were convicted Monday in the 2010 shooting deaths of a soon-to-be father and his friend outside an East San Jose apartment complex purportedly sparked by angry glances between the two groups, authorities said.

A jury handed down first-degree murder convictions for Abel Herena, 31, and Aaron Lomeli, 24, and a second-degree murder conviction for 31-year-old Juan Cruz in the Aug. 28, 2010 slayings of 26-year-old Phillip Ayala and 27-year-old Alex Rodriguez. Firearm and gang enhancements were also added to their convictions.

According to San Jose police, Ayala was on his way to visit his pregnant girlfriend and accompanied by Rodriguez when they ran into the three defendants and an unidentified woman at whose apartment they had just left. Witnesses told investigators that “an intoxicated Ayala ‘mean-mugged’ Lomeli,” slang for giving an angry stare. That sparked a verbal argument.

That reportedly led to Lomeli telling Herena and Cruz to “Pull it out!” and soon after Ayala and Rodriguez were shot and mortally wounded. The defendants’ female friend was also wounded by the gunfire.

Ayala was two weeks away from becoming a father when he was killed. Rodriguez had a young daughter, who is now 7.

Herena and Cruz eluded arrest for 10 weeks before they were captured by San Jose homicide detectives; Lomeli was already in jail for an unrelated crime. Herena and Lomeli face life in prison with the possibility of parole, and Cruz faces over 110 years to life in prison, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office. They are scheduled for sentencing April 6.

Contact Robert Salonga at 408-920-5002. Follow him at Twitter.com/robertsalonga.