Fernando Jimenez shot his girlfriend and her two sons at an apartment complex in Somers last year. One of the teen boys was killed.
Jimenez was found last October hiding in a realtor's office in Putnam County after a dramatic manhunt that went through the night.
The incident started hours earlier in an apartment complex in Somers where Jimenez shot Christina Raimondi and her two sons in their second-floor unit.
Michael Raimondi, a 15-year-old middle school student, was killed.
The shooting provided fuel to the political debate over immigration after ICE disclosed the Chilean national was in the country illegally and had returned to the U.S. after he was deported 20 years ago.
On Thursday, there were tears in the courtroom from friends and family of the victims as the 41-year-old pleaded guilty to murder, attempted murder, assault and weapons charges.
The judge in the case said he accepted the plea agreement as a way to spare the family from additional emotional pain.
"Not having to preside over what will be a very lengthy trial and not having to make the family of the victims, and the victims who survived, come in here and relive this again," said Westchester County Court Judge George Fufidio.
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