Lawrenceville man Richard Ringold on trial in mass shooting pleas guilty

The man on trial for gunning down his girlfriend, her daughter and two other people changed his plea Tuesday, abruptly ending his trial.

Richard Ringold pleaded guilty and now faces life in prison without parole. Ringold entered his plea just before the state's final witness was about the take the stand.

The district attoey said he was accepting the plea with the family's approval to spare a 7-year-old from having to testify.

Nhaje Alexander was only 4 years old when she witnessed the shooting deaths of her mother, sister and two family friends and nearly died herself.

"We didn't want to relive that moment because it would be hurtful and we've been through a lot already," Waddell Thomas, the girl's father, told Channel 2's Kerry Kavanaugh.

Tuesday was the third day of testimony in his death-penalty trial. The prosecution called several witnesses, including the doctors who treated the 4-year-old girl who survived her two gunshot wounds.

They testified, as did several others, that the girl could identify her shooter.

"She began by saying, 'Rich kicked in the door, shot mommy in the face. Everyone is dead,'" emergency room doctor Amanda Pierzchala said.

"He shot my mom in the nose. She was on the floor. There was blood everywhere," Dr. Amita Shroff said about what Nhaje told her the night of the shootings.

Tuesday, Ringold admitted to shooting and killing Antonia Butler, her 11-year-old daughter, Jhane, and two other adults inside their Lawrenceville home in 2009.

The guilty plea gives him a sentence of life without parole, but the state was seeking the death penalty in the case.

"It still hurts. Nobody's coming back. But to see him in jail locked away, life without parole, I'm content," Thomas said.