02:23 PM PDT on Wednesday, September 22, 2004

By kgw.com and AP Staff

OREGON CITY -- Ward Weaver's lawyers said Wednesday that their client decided to seek a plea deal after getting a letter from his daughter, begging him to bring the matter to a close.

AP/Pool Photo Ward Weaver is escorted into the Clackamas County Courtroom to enter his guilty pleas and be sentenced.

Weaver pleaded guilty to killing two of his daughter's friends, and was sentenced to two life sentences in prison without parole.

With the plea, Weaver, 41, avoided the death penalty, and brought an end to a case that has riveted Oregonians

Weaver's attorney, Michael Barker, said Mallori Weaver wrote a poignant letter to her father in prison and expressed enormous pain. The letter said, "Daddy, make it stop."

That is when Weaver decided to change his plea to guilty, and told his attorney, "I am putting an end to this."

But Clackamas County District Attorney John Foote said that Weaver's lawyers had approached his office with the offer for a plea deal only after Judge Robert Herndon denied a change of venue request for Weaver's trial.