Atlanta spa gunman Robert Long pleads guilty to 4 counts of murder

Atlanta spa gunman Robert Long pleads guilty to 4 counts of murder.

Editor's Note: A previous version of this story included a partial quote from Cherokee County District Attorney Shannon Wallace incorrectly stating that she did not believe the shootings to be a hate crime. In the full quote, Wallace was actually stating that it was the defense that believed it was not a hate crime. Wallace said during the hearing that had the case gone to trial, she planned to pursue a sentence enhancement based on gender bias. We apologize for the error. The 22-year-old man who killed eight people during a shooting rampage in March targeting Atlanta-area spas pleaded guilty Tuesday to four of the murders and accepted a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 35 years. Robert Aaron Long entered his plea in Blue Ridge Judicial Circuit Court in Cherokee County after answering a series of questions from Judge Ellen McElyea. He loathed his sexual addiction, he said, and it drove him to transfer blame from himself to sex workers at the spas he frequented for sex. Long pleaded guilty to the killings he committed on March 16 at Young's Asian Massage near the Atlanta suburb of Woodstock in Cherokee County.