Spa shooter pleads guilty to killing 4

A man accused of killing eight people at massage businesses in Atlanta pleaded guilty to murder in four of the killings on Tuesday.

He was given four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, including 35 years in prison. Most of the victims were women of Asian descent.

Robert Aaron Long, 22, was sentenced by Cherokee County Superior Court Chief Judge Ellen McElyea in Georgia for the March 16 rampage.

Long was also accused of fatally shooting four others at two spas in Atlanta that same day and faces murder charges for those in nearby Fulton County. He also faces charges of aggravated assault and domestic terrorism. Prosecutors said they will seek to have the deaths classified as hate crimes.

The shootings at three different businesses ignited outrage and fueled fear among Asian Americans, who were already facing increased hostility at the time linked to the coronavirus pandemic.

Many were particularly upset when authorities suggested Long's crimes were not racially motivated but instead born from a sex addiction, which is not recognized as an official disorder.

But a prosecutor reiterated in comments on Tuesday that Cherokee County investigators saw no evidence of racial bias.

"This was not any kind of hate crime," District Attorney Shannon Wallace said.

According to police, Long shot and killed four people, three of them women and two of Asian descent, at Youngs Asian Massage in Cherokee on March 16. A fifth person was wounded.

Long then drove to Atlanta, where he shot and killed three women at Gold Spa before going across the street to Aromatherapy Spa and fatally shooting another woman. All of the Atlanta victims were of Asian descent.

The guilty plea and the sentence were part of a deal announced during the court proceeding on Tuesday. McElyea agreed with the prosecutors' recommendation of four life sentences and 35 years of prison time.

Long was indicted on 23 charges related to the Cherokee County shootings, including malicious murder, felony murder and aggravated assault. Though the state said several of the charges will either merge or be vacated by the law, he pleaded guilty to every charge as part of an agreement.

The courtroom was packed with family members of the victims, and Elcias Hernandez Ortiz, a victim whom Long shot in the face but did not kill.

At the judge's prompting, Long spoke of his addiction to pornography and prostitution, and how he wanted to "punish the people" who were the objects of his obsession.

Wallace said the surviving victims and the families of those killed did not want to pursue the death penalty.

"The defendant was merciless in his actions, but the surviving victims and the families of the murdered victims chose to request mercy, preferring that this defendant spend every remaining day of his life in prison faced with the memories of his own monstrosity," she said at a news conference.