Wichita ? A Liberal man facing a possible death penalty for setting fire to a camper as his two young sons slept inside pleaded guilty Wednesday to reduced murder charges as jurors were being chosen for his second trial.

Robert Fox, 55, admitted as part of a plea agreement that he caused the deaths of Chance Fox, 6, and Rowdy Fox, 4. The boys lived with their mother in Hooker, Okla., and were visiting their father in southwest Kansas when they died on March 27, 2004.

Jury selection had begun Tuesday in Sedgwick County District Court, where the trial had been moved from Seward County in southwest Kansas.

Initially charged with capital murder and first-degree murder, Fox pleaded guilty to two counts of reckless second-degree murder as part of an agreement reached Wednesday afternoon.

He faces nine to 41 years in prison on each count. Atty. Gen. Phill Kline said the defense had agreed not to request a downward departure in sentencing, and prosecutors will ask that the terms be served consecutively.

“We believe justice is served by this plea,” Kline said in a statement.

Sentencing will take place in Liberal, with the date to be set later this week.

Fox allegedly killed his sons because of a fight with their mother, Angie McCane, according to testimony in an earlier proceeding.

Claude Burns, the boys’ maternal grandfather, was unhappy with the plea agreement.

“I’d rather see (Fox) buried,” Burns told The Hutchinson News by telephone from his home in Hooker, Okla.

He added: “I just want to see it over with. My family’s been through hell the last couple years.”

Fox’s first trial, in Liberal, ended in a mistrial in February after prosecutors realized they did not have a report from a fire detective.

In opening statements at that first trial, prosecutors described Fox as a man who was familiar with fire. A week before the deadly blaze, he had taken Chance to a fire station and asked for a tour.

But the defense portrayed him as an overmedicated man who mixed drugs with alcohol after finding out he had colon cancer. He was in the camper when it caught fire and escaped with burns.

Seward County District Judge Tom Smith in May granted Fox’s request for a change of venue. A survey presented by the defense showed that 90 percent of Seward County residents had heard about the case, and 80 percent indicated suspicion that Fox was guilty.