GONZALES, La. -- Shon Miller, whose conviction in the killing of three relatives and a church deacon in a 1999 shooting spree was thrown out by the state Supreme Court, pleaded guilty to the killings Friday, a prosecutor said.

Ricky Babin, an assistant district attorney in Ascension parish, said Miller pleaded guilty and will be sentenced to life in prison.

Miller had been sentenced to death after his original conviction for the March 1999 shootings but Babin said prosecutors agreed to a life sentence this time because Miller is terminally ill and not expected to live a full year.

Miller was convicted in 2000 of shooting his mother-in-law to death in front of her home, then going to New St. John Fellowship Church, where he burst in on a Wednesday night prayer meeting and killed his wife, 2-year-old son and a deacon. Miller himself was wounded and left paralyzed from the waist down following an hour-long standoff with police a short time later.

After his conviction, the state Supreme Court found that the judge's pretrial rulings prevented Miller from exercising his right to plead not guilty by reason of insanity.

Babin said Miller, besides being paralyzed from the shooting, also is afflicted with osteomyelitis of his pelvis. Osteomyelitis is an inflammatory bone disease.