In a startlingly swift resolution to the case, Gary Michael Hilton was immediately sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years. The judge said she signed off on the deal because the 61-year-old likely would have died in prison anyway before the state had a chance to execute him.

Hilton was indicted Thursday morning by a specially called Dawson County grand jury that accused him of bludgeoning Meredith Emerson on Jan. 4, three days after he was seen with her on a trail in the mountains of northern Georgia.

Hilton told investigators he abducted the physically fit woman in a plan to steal cash from her bank accounts, Dawson County District Attorney Lee Darragh said.

"The sole purpose was to acquire (bank) cards and PIN numbers," Darragh said. "He mentioned at one point that he knew eventually he would take her life."

But Emerson gave him false PINs, and Hilton finally took a tire iron to her head, the prosecutor said. Hilton decapitated her to make it harder for authorities to identify the body, said John Cagle, a special agent in charge with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Authorities have said they are looking at whether Hilton had a hand in the October disappearance of an 80-year-old hiker and his 84-year-old wife in western North Carolina, and in two other killings in Florida. Cagle and Darragh declined to say what effect, if any, Hilton's plea deal might have on those investigations.

Jeffrey Epstein's attorney, Lilly Ann Sanchez, said the allegations are false and motivated by money.

The girl, now 17 and identified only as Jane Doe, claims Epstein invited her to his Palm Beach mansion in 2005 to perform a massage for $300. She claims he demanded she remove her clothes, then sexually assaulted her, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in West Palm Beach.

"Jane experienced confusion, shame, humiliation, embarrassment, and the assault sent her life into a downward spiral," the lawsuit states.

The girl, her father and stepmother are seeking more than $50 million.

"It is our belief that this is completely financially motivated," Sanchez said. She said the girl told Epstein she was 18, and regardless, he did nothing inappropriate with her.

The teen is also at the center of a criminal case against Epstein in Florida, said her lawyer, Jeffrey Herman.

Epstein, 55, is charged with one felony count of solicitation of prostitution. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors declined to charge Epstein with soliciting a minor for sex, as Palm Beach police recommended. The state attorney's office declined to comment about the criminal case.

The teen's father pleaded guilty in 2001 to three federal fraud counts accusing him of arranging fraudulent loans as a mortgage broker in a scheme to collect commissions from sales. He was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison. The Associated Press is not naming the father to protect the girl's identity.

The father, who was also at the news conference, declined to comment on his own criminal case.

"Quite frankly, we're very, very angry," he said, adding that Epstein destroyed his "daughter's innocence."

Epstein, a money manager, also was sued last year in New York by a woman who claims he had sex with her at his Manhattan mansion in 2000 when she was 16.

"I think it's unfortunate that Mr. Epstein doesn't see what he's done to these young people and just look to reach a reasonable settlement with them," said that woman's attorney, William J. Unroch.

Gerald Lefcourt, Epstein's New York attorney, also denied the allegations in the New York case. He also said in court papers that Unroch and his client, who is actually a man living as a female, filed a similar lawsuit in a separate case.

The extortion was revealed during the investigation into another embarrassing incident for Atlanta police: the fatal 2006 police shooting of an elderly woman in a botched drug raid.

Daniel Betts, who resigned from the police force Wednesday, pleaded guilty to one federal count of interfering with interstate commerce by means of extortion under color of official right.

Betts admitted taking payoffs from the owner of the complex, which functions as a rehabilitation facility for recovering drug addicts. Prosecutors said he took $120 a week from the apartment owner over at least a four-month period last year.

Betts, 26, told U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes he didn't know his conduct was illegal at the time, but he does now.

A former pub landlord accused of murdering five prostitutes has appeared in court for a second day ahead of the start of his trial.

Steve Wright, 49, of Ipswich, Suffolk, denies murdering Gemma Adams, 25, Tania Nicol, 19, Anneli Alderton, 24, Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29.

Wearing an open-necked white shirt and a single-breasted black suit, Wright listened intently as the lawyers in the case discussed legal issues for 20 minutes at Ipswich Crown Court.

The jury of 10 men and two women, who were sworn in on Monday, did not attend Tuesday's proceedings.

The prosecution, led by barrister Peter Wright QC, is due to open its case against Wright at 10.30am on Wednesday.

Wright's defence team is headed by Timothy Langdale QC.

The five women were found at remote locations near Ipswich during a 10-day period in December 2006.

Jurors found John White, 54, guilty of second-degree manslaughter in the death of Daniel Cicciaro despite the man's claims that he feared a "lynch mob" had come to attack his family.

The ruling came on the fourth day of deliberations following an emotional three-week trial in which defense attorneys invoked the nation's violent racist past in arguing the shooting was justified.

Jurors also found White guilty of criminal possession of a weapon.

White testified during the trial that he was trying to protect his family in 2006 when he brandished a gun after a group of angry white teenagers turned up at his house late at night to fight his son.

White claimed the gun went off accidentally, killing Cicciaro, 17.

Jurors had asked on Saturday to hear readbacks of testimony from White's wife and son.