A Dauphin County judge sentenced a Harrisburg man to life plus 20 to 40 years in prison Tuesday, moments after he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for the December 2012 shotgun slaying of his ex-girlfriend.

Judge Scott A. Evans imposed that punishment on Lagenza Junious under a plea deal reached just as selection was to begin for the 39-year-old's death penalty trial.

The plea deal outlined by Chief Deputy District Attorney Johnny Baer took capital punishment off the table in return for Junious' guilty pleas to the murder count, plus attempted murder, burglary and illegal gun possession charges.

Baer said Junious broke into an apartment next to his in the 900 block of North Sixth Street at 6 a.m. on Dec. 20, 2012 and shot his ex-girlfriend, 21-year-old Adreanne Evans, in the chest at close range with a shotgun. He also shot Evans' new boyfriend, Stirling Brown, in the head, then shot Evans again, this time in the face, before he dropped the gun and left the apartment, the prosecutor said.

Junious' then-4-month-old son with Evans was in the home during the shootings, as was Evans' mother, Shee Evans.

As Judge Evans imposed the sentence Tuesday, a tearful Shee Evans and her daughter, Hailey Evans, told Junious they will never forgive him.

"I just don't understand why you couldn't walk away and leave us alone," said Shee Evans, who is raising her dead daughter's son. "I can't sleep at night. My grandson is starting to have nightmares."

She told Junious he had robbed Adreanne of her full chance to be a mother.

"My sister, my best friend, she's gone. He took her," Hailey Evans told the judge. "I hope he lives the rest of his life regretting what he did to my family."

With the judge's permission, Junious turned to face the Evanses. He told them he took the plea deal, not because he feared the death penalty, but because he wanted to spare them from having to endure a trial.

"I don't put the blame on nobody else but myself," he said. "I messed up and I'll never forgive myself."

"You want to get me back, raise my son to be really productive," he told Shee Evans. "Don't let him go down the path I went down. Teach him the right way."

District Attorney Ed Marsico said the plea deal Junious accepted had been offered to him before. Such offers are common in first-degree murder case, he said.

Marsico noted as well that it was unknown how Gov. Tom Wolf's just announced and contested moratorium on executions in Pennsylvania would play out with prospective jurors. The case against Junious, who committed the shootings in front of witnesses and then confessed to police, was "overwhelming," the DA said.

Senior Assistant Public Defender Jessica Bush said that, had the case gone to trial, Junious was prepared to claim he was intoxicated and "was not in his right mind" during the shootings.

Junious, a father of four, told Shee and Hailey Evans that he plans to take classes in prison and to try to steer other young men of all races away from the mistakes he made, including "the ignorance of drinking, smoking weed and domestic violence."

"You don't have to tell my son what I did. Hopefully, he'll come see me and I'll tell him," Junious said as Hailey Evans emphatically shook her head, 'No."

"I'm at peace now," Junious added. "I'm going to be OK."

Junious didn't have the last word, though. As he left the courtroom in shackles, Hailey Evans shouted that she hates him.