ByREUTERS

Robert Aaron Long, the man charged in the shooting deaths of eight people in Atlanta-area spas in March, six of them women of Asian descent, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to murdering four of the victims.

Long affirmed that he agreed to the plea deal in a courtroom in Cherokee County, where he was charged with four counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault. Cherokee is about 40 miles (64 km) north of Atlanta.