A twenty-two year old pleaded guilty to attacks on massage parlors in Georgia.
In the first of two trials, Robert Aaron Long confessed in the Cherokee County court on Tuesday that he murdered three women of Asian descent and one man that spring.
As agreed with prosecutors, Long was sentenced to life imprisonment for the offenses with no early release option.
The relatives of the victims refrained from calling for the death penalty.
Long had used a prostitute at Young's Asian Massage on March 16 before shooting a handgun.
He then drove to neighboring Atlanta, where he killed four other people in two brothels, three of them Asian.
Long later stated that he committed the acts out of frustration at his alleged sex addiction.
While Cherokee County prosecutors found no evidence of a hate crime, presiding judge Ellen McElyea did not rule out a racist motive.
Because of the two attacks in Atlanta, Long will have to stand trial in the Fulton district in the coming weeks.
There, the public prosecutor's office is probably aiming for the death penalty.