'Golden State Killer' sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to series of rapes and murders

The "Golden State Killer" is headed to prison for the rest of his life.

Joseph James DeAngelo, the former police officer known as the Golden State Killer, on Friday was sentenced to life without parole after pleading guilty to a series of murders and rapes in California during the 1970s and 1980s, the Los Angeles Times reports. He was finally arrested in 2018 thanks to the use of "innovative DNA technology."

Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton described DeAngelo as a "man whose horrific unspeakable crimes devastated the lives of so many people, lives that will never be the same, lives forever changed, moments, hours of terror that can never be erased or forgotten," reports the Times. He spoke in the courtroom on Friday and said he is "truly sorry to everyone I've hurt."

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Prosecutors say DeAngelo's crimes encompass "87 victims at 53 crime scenes spanning 11 California counties," The Associated Press reports, and he pleaded guilty to 13 murders and more than 50 rapes, according to CNN.

Prior to the sentencing, some of DeAngelo's victims had emotionally confronted him in court this week, with one rape survivor saying, "You destroyed the life that I had."