APPOMATTOX, Va. (AP) — A man who shot and killed eight people, including his sister and her family, at his central Virginia home in 2010 was sentenced Friday to five life terms after relatives of his victims, weeping and angry, branded him a monster and a coward.

Christopher Speight, 42, pleaded guilty to three counts of capital murder, one count of attempted capital murder of a police officer and five firearms counts.

After the nearly two-hour hearing, Commonwealth's Attorney Darrel Puckett said mental health experts for both the defense and the state had found Speight insane at the time of the January 2010 shooting spree, "rendering a death sentence highly unlikely" had the case gone to trial.

The former security guard was arrested after an overnight manhunt near the Appomattox home he shared with his sister, her husband and their two children, ages 15 and 4. Those family members, two neighbors, their teenage daughter and a teenage boy were killed in the shootings.

According to a statement of facts Puckett read during the hearing, Speight told investigators that an Egyptian goddess named Jennifer told him to shoot his family because they were possessed by demons. The others were ambushed from Speight's perch in a tree house after they came to the house. Speight told investigators that Jennifer ordered them shot so they couldn't help the first victims, whose bodies needed to rot, according to the statement.

Family members of the victims expressed no pity, but plenty of doubt, over Speight's mental condition.

Speight, dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit and shackled at the ankles and wrists, sat with eyes cast downward as four relatives of the victims testified about how the murders affected them and their families.

"Christopher Speight, you look at me!" demanded a tearful Kim Scruggs, whose 16-year-old son Bo was among the victims. "You were a coward up there that day when you shot my son in the back, running for his life."

After a long pause to gather her composure, she added, "May God have mercy on your soul."

Meghan Durrette's mother, stepfather and 15-year-old sister also were killed.

"How could someone commit such a heinous crime? I've asked myself that question for three years, and all I could come up with is monster," she said as she cried. "You are a monster. I hope you rot in hell."

Durrette's uncle, Steve Canard of Lynchburg, brought pictures of his sister, her husband and niece, who also was killed, into court. He told the Associated Press that he wanted to "make sure he remembers the faces of the people he killed."

In court, he told Speight: "You knew exactly what you were doing. There is no Egyptian goddess Jennifer, there are no demons."

Sarah Dobyns, whose step-granddaughter was killed, was equally skeptical.

"You fooled a panel of experts into thinking you were possessed, and the commonwealth's attorney took away the death penalty because you confessed," she said, reading a poem she wrote as her victim impact statement.

"For now you have escaped that death squad, but one day, Christopher Speight, you will have to stand before God," she said. "God is not so easily fooled." Continued...