The man who killed eight in a rampage against massage parlor employees in Georgia received four life sentences.
Robert Aaron Long formalized his deal, agreeing to plead guilty in exchange for being spared the death penalty, in Cherokee County Tuesday morning, according to several reports. He received 35 years tacked onto the life sentences, and will not be eligible for parole.
“Attorneys for Robert Aaron Long said it was the 22-year-old’s desire to accept responsibility for his actions from the time of his first interview with police,” according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The guilty plea stemmed from Long’s murders of Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, 49, Daoyou Feng, 44, Delaina Yaun, 33, and Paul Michels, 54, at Young’s Asian Massage in Acworth on March 16.
He still faces murder charges in Fulton County, where District Attorney Fani Willis said she plans to seek the death penalty.
Long is accused of killing three people at Gold Massage Spa in northeast Atlanta, and one person at Aromatherapy Spa across the street, also on March 16. Those victims were Soon C. Park, 74; Hyun J. Grant, 51; Suncha Kim, 69; and Yong A. Yue, 63.
He was captured later that day by Crisp County Sheriffs and the Georgia State Patrol after a brief vehicle chase.
Long said he had a sex addiction, and that his motive was to kill sex workers. He has been accused of hate crimes against Asians for targeting Asian massage parlors.
“It never felt like I had a lot of control over those urges and it became obsessive to the point it occupied a lot of thought space,” Long told the judge Tuesday, speaking publicly for the first time.
He said he was addicted to pornography and that it “hurt a lot of relationships in my life and I still found myself going back to it.”
“I wanted to stop the places and basically punish the people that I could,” he said.
He was not convicted of any hate crimes Tuesday.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Georgia Star News and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected]
