Chris Watts, who killed his pregnant wife and 2 daughters, has pleaded guilty

In order to avoid the death penalty, Shanann Watts parents’ and Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke agreed for the accused to plead guilty to nine charges, including five counts of first-degree murder.

33-year-old Christopher Watts will be sentenced on November 19, according to Denver Post. The agreement stipulates that Watts serve consecutive life sentences for the three murders, as was shared in a news conference.

The additional charges are one count of unlawful termination of a pregnancy and three counts of tampering with a deceased human body. Read more on our Twitter account @amomama_usa

Watts answered ‘guilty” to each of the charges read to him in court by a Weld County judge during a hearing on November 6. The prosecutor was outspoken about the reasons for the plea deal.

THE AGREEMENT

Following the hearing, District Attorney Michael Rourke gave the news conference in behalf of Shanann Watts’ parents, who were present when the charges were read but refrained from declaring to the press.

Rourke quoted Shanann’s mother Sandra Rzucek to better explain the victim’s family decision.

“She said, ‘He made the choice to take their lives, I didn’t want to be in the position to make the choice to take his,’” the prosecutor shared.

“There were a lot of emotions that went through [Shanann’s parents’] minds. It was a combination of relief, extreme sadness that we had to have that conversation in the first place.”

-Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke, Denver Post, November 6, 2018.

THE MURDERS

Christopher had already confessed to killing his wife in a "rage attack” on August 13, blaming her for killing their two daughters inside their Frederick home, about 50 kilometers north of Denver.

The bodies of Shaanann, 34, Bella, 4, and Celeste, 3, were found by police officers with the help of dogs in two different locations within an oil extraction site of the Anadarko Petroleum company, where Christopher worked until his dismissal, which occurred on the same day of his arrest.

Shanann was last seen at 2 am on August 13, when she returned home after a work trip. Her friend Nickole Utoft, who drove her home, was expecting to see her again later that day, but she never answered her phone.

Alarmed by this, and by the fact that her friend missed a doctor’s appointment, Utoft informed the police, who started investigating the case.

In the beginning, Christopher pretended to be worried about them and miss them, but after the bodies of the three were found in the oil he admitted he killed his wife, who was also pregnant with a boy she was going to name Nico.