POMEROY — Charles Williams admitted to the robbery and murder of Doris Jackson, a longtime family friend, to a three-judge panel Wednesday.

Williams will serve life in prison with no parole for at least 30 years for the February crimes.

Williams, 40, entered into a plea agreement with the state that will keep him behind bars for at least most of his life. He and Jackson’s niece each made emotional statements as part of a day-long hearing in Meigs County Common Pleas Court.

Meigs County Common Pleas Judge Fred W. Crow III, Gallia County Common Pleas Judge Dean Evans and Morgan County Common Pleas Judge Dan Favreau accepted Williams’ plea, found him guilty, and agreed to the negotiated sentence on all 10 counts of an indictment returned a month after Jackson was killed.

Two months after changing his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity, Williams admitted yesterday to two counts of aggravated murder, three counts of kidnapping, aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, two counts of receiving stolen property and tampering with evidence. He will be transported to Orient Reception Center by midday today.

Williams was scheduled to face a jury in early December. His attorneys, Charles Knight of Pomeroy and William Eachus of Gallipolis, have maintained that Williams suffers from mental illness, although a psychiatric evaluation performed this summer found him competent to stand trial.

At yesterday’s plea hearing, Knight said Williams has been treated for mental health problems since he was 14, and has been transported for treatment of mental illness since he was first jailed for Jackson’s murder.

Jackson was reported missing from her Tuppers Plains home in late February. Three days later, her body was found in her dining room beneath a pile of her personal belongings. Her car, stolen along with firearms, jewelry, cash and other items, was recovered at an apartment complex on Richland Avenue in Athens.

Jackson was strangled and bludgeoned to death. When investigators discovered her body, her throat had been cut and her hands bound with a telephone cord. Williams admitted yesterday that he, alone, was responsible for Jackson’s death, but said Garnes had helped plan the robbery which went awry on Feb. 23, and that two others had transported him to Jackson’s home and helped dispose of evidence of the robbery and murder.

A co-defendant in the case, James Lee Garnes, Jr., is now serving a six and a half-year prison term for receiving stolen property and tampering with evidence, and will be sentenced next month on charges of obstructing justice in the Jackson murder investigation and an unrelated charge of escape.

Only Williams and Garnes have been charged in the case.

In a statement read by his attorney, Charles Knight, Williams said Garnes and two others who were never charged in the Jackson case had significant roles in the events of Feb. 23, and said the state should be expected to prosecute the three for their roles.

Williams was apologetic to family members in the courtroom, but also deflected blame on the three others he said were involved.

Jackson’s niece, Patricia Harris, Reedsville, said Jackson was well-loved by family and neighbors. She spoke on behalf of Jackson’s extended family.

“What happened to her was cruel, and she didn’t deserve it,” Harris said.