 Jesse Matthew is escorted out of court after a hearing on two different murder charges in Charlottesville, Va. 
 
 Jesse Matthew is escorted out of court after a hearing on two different murder charges in Charlottesville, Va. Steve Helber/AP 
 
 Jesse Matthew is expected to enter guilty pleas in the murder cases of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham and Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington. In doing so, Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr. closed a painful chapter for the loved ones of the two Virginia college students he admitted killing — Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington. Jesse L. Matthew Jr. entered a guilty plea on March 2 and was sentenced to four life terms in the kidnapping and deaths of two Virginia college students. (Ashleigh Joplin/The Washington Post) 
 
 The guilty pleas in an Albemarle County court — to two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of abduction with intent to defile — were part of an agreement with prosecutors that spared Matthew the possibility of facing the death penalty if convicted at trial in Graham’s murder. The pleas take the death penalty off the table for Matthew, who was already serving three life sentences for the 2005 rape and attempted murder of a woman from India in Fairfax County, Virginia. The DNA in that case tied together all cases. As part of the deal, Matthew may not appeal or seek geriatric release, ensuring that he will die in custody. The emotional hearing brought a close to a long, slow journey for the Grahams and for Harrington’s family, which had waited more than six years for her killer to be brought to justice. Matthew also appeared to show little emotion as two impact statements were read by members of the Graham and Harrington families. Matthew did not give a statement during the hearing, though his lawyer said that Matthew was sorry for what happened. Seven months later, Matthew with charged with killing Harrington, a 20-year-old Virginia Tech student who disappeared Oct. 17, 2009 during a Metallica concert on the UVA campus in Charlottesville. Matthew was charged in February with murdering Graham, an 18-year-old University of Virginia sophomore who vanished Sept. 13, 2014 after a night out with friends. "This is not a celebratory time of time of fist-pumping joy," Gil Harrington, Morgan's mother said to CBS 6. “He dumped our daughter’s body like a bag of trash,” Graham said, noting that the remains sat for weeks in the wooded area, “to be picked over by buzzards and vultures.” 
 
 After Matthew’s arrest, he was linked through a DNA test to a cold case that bore striking similarities to the Graham disappearance — the slaying of Harrington. [Man charged with killing U-Va. student said he was ‘really drunk’ that night] 
 
 A bloody T-shirt that Harrington wore was discovered in Charlottesville the next month, and her remains were found on a farm in southern Albemarle County three months later. He was charged with abduction with intent to defile and a DNA sample connected him to the sexual assault in Fairfax County, officials said earlier. It denies Matthew the ability to "inflict his depravity on young women," the grieving dad said.
– The man known as the "UVA killer" will in all likelihood spend the rest of his life behind bars after pleading guilty to killing two Virginia college students over the past seven years, NBC News reports. Jesse Matthew was sentenced to four life sentences on Wednesday as part of a plea deal that will allow him to avoid the death penalty. The deal was supported by the families of both of his victims, according to WTVR. Matthew's lawyer said his client agreed to the plea "to not have the sentence of death hanging over his head," the Washington Post reports. NBC states the deal "all but assures he will never be a free man again." Matthew has no chance of parole, early release, or geriatric release. Twenty-year-old Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington disappeared in 2009 after attending a concert at the University of Virginia. Eighteen-year-old Hannah Graham was a UVA student when she disappeared five years later. Matthew worked at the UVA medical center at the time of the disappearances. "Today's events do not bring Hannah back to us," Graham's father said during Wednesday's hearing, per NBC. "But at times like this, we must take comfort where we can." Graham's mother described her daughter as a "heroine" for giving her life to help police arrest “a serial rapist and murderer hiding in plain sight." Matthew was sentenced to three life sentences last year for sexually assaulting and attempting to murder a 26-year-old woman in 2005.