DUNCAN, Okla. – A western Oklahoma man pleaded guilty to three counts of murder in the first degree in the killings of his parents and sister during a special court hearing on Thursday.

Alan Hruby, 20, will face three life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole.

Hruby opted to change his plea following a deal that was reached between his defense and the state. He was charged with the October 2014 murders of his father, John, his mother, Tinker and his sister, Katherine.

He had initially entered in a plea of not guilty.

During the hearing, a letter from Hruby’s aunt, Alison Whitaker, was read in court. In it, Whitaker said Hruby destroyed her family.

Stephens County District Attorney Jason Hicks said he is in favor of the death penalty, but would not stand in the way of the family’s wishes for a life sentence.

Judge Ken Graham accepted the plea deal.

In 2014, Hruby, then a 19-year-old freshman at the University of Oklahoma, was the only suspect in the investigation to determine who shot to death the members of his immediate family.

In 2015, he confessed to the crime and soon after said he deserved to be put to death in a letter he wrote to The Oklahoman.

“I 100% welcome the death penelty [sic]!,” Hruby wrote. “What occured [sic] is so horrible it is deserved. It is so unspeakable.”

Hruby responded to a letter from the newspaper asking him several questions about the crime and his frame of mind. In a handwritten letter filled with misspelled words, he shared that he is still trying to understand what made him turn on his family.

The Duncan Banner previously reported that Hruby needed money to fund his shopping habits. Even though that’s what he initially told authorities after he was arrested, he now says that’s incorrect.

“This didn’t happen because of shopping,” Hruby wrote “My shopping wasn’t something I or my parents could not pay. They just thought my spending was out of control, and it was.”

Hruby had a troubled past, authorities said. He was charged in August of 2013 with illegally charging $5,000 on his grandmother’s stolen credit card while vacationing in Europe.

He pleaded guilty in January 2014 and was placed on delayed sentencing, a form of probation, for youthful offenders. But he was also ordered by the court to pay restitution, undergo substance abuse evaluation, attend drug and alcohol counseling, and complete a cognitive behavior program.

Hruby’s father, John, was well known in Oklahoma newspaper circles and locally in Duncan, where his family owned the daily Duncan Banner for three generations before selling the paper in 1997. He bought the Marlow Review in 2007 and the Comanche County Chronicle in 2013. He was named vice president of the foundation of the Oklahoma Press Association prior to his death.

The Duncan, Oklahoma Banner contributed details to this story. This story will be updated.