A Superior Court jury on Thursday found Marwan O. Chankar guilty of first-degree arson and criminal mischief for setting fire to a home at 145 Rockwell St. in Norwich three years ago.

The jury found Chankar, who had been charged with trying to kill one of the home’s occupants by torching the building, not guilty of attempted murder.

Chankar, who is 37, faces up to 30 years in prison when New London Superior Court Judge Barbara Bailey Jongbloed sentences him on Jan. 8. The arson conviction carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years.

The six-member jury, made up of three men and three women, began deliberating late Wednesday and announced it had reached a verdict at 3:30 p.m. Thursday.

Testimony had showed Chankar was homeless and had been staying with Henry Wickham in a third-floor apartment in the building and squatting, at times, in a vacant apartment on the second floor. Wickham testified that, with two other people present, he had asked Chankar to leave his third-floor apartment on July 9, 2011, the day the fire occurred.

Fire officials determined the fire, which injured two firefighters, displaced about 10 people and caused about $400,000 worth of damage, had been intentionally started using an accelerant, such as charcoal lighter fluid. A friend of Chankar, Laura Wallace, told police that Chankar told her he had ignited some curtains in the vacant apartment after he argued with Wickham about crack cocaine and was asked to leave.

“The jury paid a lot of attention to the evidence,” prosecutor David J. Smith said after the verdict. “They sifted through and came to the right conclusion.”

Defense attorney Thedore Koch declined to comment. Chankar’s father, who had sat behind his son and offered encouragement throughout the trial, left the courthouse looking disappointed.

Chankar is currently serving a 58-month sentence for serving as the getaway driver in two robberies. In taking the arson case to trial, he rejected an offer to plead guilty in exchange for a seven-year prison sentence.

k.florin@theday.com

Twitter: @KFLORIN