APPOMATTOX, Va. (AP) - A man who pleaded guilty to killing eight people at his rural central Virginia home and shooting down a state police helicopter has been sentenced to five life terms.

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Christopher Speight entered his plea Friday in Appomattox County Circuit Court. After hearing from the victims' families, a judge agreed to sentence him to five life sentences, plus 18 years.

Speight pleaded guilty to three counts of capital murder, one count of attempted capital murder of a police officer and five firearms counts.

The 42-year-old former security guard was arrested in January 2010, after an overnight manhunt near the Appomattox home he shared with his sister, her husband and their two children. Those family members, two neighbors, their teenage daughter and a teenage boy were killed