Colorado man admits killing his family and escaping the death penalty

A Colorado man escaped the death penalty for killing his pregnant wife and two daughters in a relationship-related affair in North Carolina.

Christopher Watts, 33, married his late wife Shannan in Mecklenburg County in 2012 and his parents still live in North Carolina. On Tuesday, the county attorney's office in Weld, Colorado, said Watts pled guilty to the murder of 34-year-old Shannan Watts and their daughters, Bella, 3, and Celeste, 4, August.

Their bodies were found hidden in an oil field in Colorado, Shannan Watts reported in a shallow pit and the girls were thrown into an oil tank.

Watts has pleaded guilty to nine counts, including the illegal termination of a pregnancy and three counts of falsifying the body of a deceased deceased, the Weld County District Attorney's Office said Tuesday in a statement.

"With the agreement of the family of victims, DA (Michael) Rourke eliminated the death penalty in exchange for the guilt of the nine counts listed above," the office said.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for November 19. The plea agreement states that Watts will serve three consecutive sentences in perpetuity, the media reported.

Rourke met with Shannan Watts' parents at their home in North Carolina to discuss the deal before agreeing to the plea agreement, Rourke said at a press conference.

Shannan Watts' parents live in Aberdeen, according to the records. Christopher Watts lived in Mooresville 10 or so years ago, according to the voters' records.

Shanann Watts' mother, Sandra Rzucek, told Rourke: "" (Watts) has chosen to take death to life, "said the attorney general, the Denver Post reported. "I did not want to be able to choose to take hers."

According to an affidavit relating to his arrest, at the time of his disappearance in August, Christopher Watts had first told the police that he had just informed his wife that he wanted a separation. Investigators later learned that Watts had been involved in an affair with a colleague, the affidavit.

Watts appeared in the "Today" show two days after his wife's disappearance to say that he was living a "nightmare," reported CBS News at the time.

"I just want them to come back," he said in the interview. "I just want them to come back."

In a later interview, the affidavit on the arrest indicates that Watts claimed to have seen on a baby monitor that his youngest daughter had died and that his wife was strangling his eldest daughter. Watts told the investigators that he had "become furious" and had strangled his wife, then threw the three bodies on the oilfield belonging to a company for which he had worked.

The funeral of Shannan Watts and her two daughters took place in Pinehurst on September 1, according to an obituary.

Bruce Henderson, 704-358-5051; @bhender