MONROE, N.C. -- An accused serial killer has been sentenced for kidnapping, raping and killing three women in Union County.

District Attorney John Snyder said Friday that Scott Wilson Williams, 44, pleaded guilty in court Friday morning. He was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences in prison without parole.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty against the former Union County Department of Transportation worker.

Williams was charged with first-degree murder, first-degree rape and kidnapping in the deaths of three Charlotte-area women between 1997 and 2006, when he was arrested.

The women were shot and their mutilated bodies were dumped near rural roads. He killed Sharon House Pressley in 1997, Christina Outz Parker in 2004 and Sharon Tucker Stone in 2006. He also pleaded guilty to crimes involving two more women, including attempted first-degree murder and first-degree sex offense.

Records show investigators seized assorted whips, chains, handcuffs, knives and handguns from Williams' home. Detectives said Friday they also found pornography and a Barbie doll collection in the home.

Union County Sheriff Eddie Cathey has said that Williams and the three dead women knew each other because they "lived a high-risk lifestyle, and he was a part of that high-risk lifestyle."

Pressley had been charged with prostitution seven months before she died, and both she and Parker both had drug convictions.

Records show that Stone pleaded guilty to a series of misdemeanors over five years. Police said Parker and Stone knew each other.

About 20 family members of the victims were in the courtroom as Williams’ sentence was read. Snyder said he kept the plea hearing out of the public spotlight at the request of the three families who lost loved ones at the hands of the serial killer.

"Family members who showed true Christian spirit saying they forgave him. They will never understand what he did, but they were able to forgive him," he said.

Snyder said the families are satisfied with the plea deal.

"There were a lot of tears, a lot of broken families, but people felt like from this day forward, they will be able to go on and be healed," he said.