(CNN) A North Carolina man was sentenced Wednesday to three terms of life in prison for shooting and killing three of his neighbors, all Muslim students, in the college town of Chapel Hill in 2015.

Craig Hicks pleaded guilty earlier Wednesday in a Durham County courtroom to three counts of first-degree murder for the killings of Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23; Barakat's wife, Yusor Mohammad, 21; and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19.

He also pleaded guilty to discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling, for which he was sentenced to an additional 64 to 89 months.

Police said Hicks shot the three in February 2015 at an apartment near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Police said the shooting appeared to stem from a parking dispute

Hicks was not charged with a hate crime. That incensed the victims' relatives, who alleged that Hicks had taunted the victims previously , and who did not accept that Hicks shot them only over a parking space.

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