Accused murder Michael McCreary is now a convicted killer.

McCreary plead guilty on Tuesday in a Sumter County court to capital murder and was sentenced to life without parole.

McCreary’s guilty plea will allow him to avoid the death penalty which the District Attorney’s office was expected to seek in the case. According to court documents from Sumter County, McCreary testified against his accomplice in the crime, Annette Miller, stating the Miller allowed them to gain access to the home of Enoch and Alma Smith of Faunsdale in November of 1999.

Alma Brame Smith was found dead in her home with a cut to her neck. Enoch Smith was attacked in his bed and severely beaten and robbed during the incident. Enoch Smith died October 26, 2001. His testimony from a February 2000 preliminary hearing was entered posthumously during the trial proceedings.

Miller will also be tried in Sumter County sometime in June next year.