A panel of three judges sentenced 24-year-old Arron Lawson on Thursday in the 2017 slayings near Ironton in southern Ohio's Lawrence County.

IRONTON, Ohio— A man who pleaded guilty in the deadly Ohio shootings of four relatives, including a young boy, has been sentenced to the death penalty.

A panel of three judges sentenced 24-year-old Arron Lawson on Thursday in the 2017 slayings near Ironton in southern Ohio's Lawrence County.

Prosecutors say he killed his adult cousin, her son, her mother and her stepfather, and wounded her husband, after the cousin broke off an affair with Lawson.

Lawson pleaded guilty last week to 13 counts including aggravated murder. He apologized in court this week and told the judges he knew he did wrong, but asked to be spared the death penalty.

Defense attorney Kirk McVay had argued Lawson was abused and neglected as a child.