Atlanta spa shooter pleads guilty to 4 killings

A man accused of killing eight people — most of them women of Asian descent — at Atlanta-area massage businesses pleaded guilty Tuesday to murder in four of the killings and was given four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus 35 years in prison.

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

That same March day, Long was accused of fatally shooting four others at two spas in Atlanta and faces murder charges in those slayings in nearby Fulton County. He also faces charges there of aggravated assault and domestic terrorism, and prosecutors have 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 weren't racially motivated but instead born of a sex addiction, which is not recognized as an official disorder.

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

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

On March 16, Long shot and killed four people, three of them women, two of Asian descent, at Youngs Asian Massage in Cherokee County, according to police. 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 the Aromatherapy Spa and fatally shooting another woman, police have said. 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 Tuesday. Prosecutors recommended the four life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus 35 years. McElyea agreed with the recommendation.

Long was indicted on 23 charges related to the Cherokee County shootings, including malicious murder, felony murder and aggravated assault. Although 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 victims' family members, and one victim, Elcias Hernandez Ortiz, whom Long shot in the face but didn't kill.

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

Wallace said that the surviving victims and the families of those killed didn't 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," she said at a news conference, "preferring that this defendant spend every remaining day of his life in prison faced with the memories of his own monstrosity".