Drifter Pleads Guilty To Killing Hiker

Gary Michael Hilton was sentenced today to life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to murder in the beating-death of a young woman hiker in the north Georgia mountains.

During a hearing in Dawson County Superior Court, District Attorney Lee Darragh said the plea agreement was signed earlier in the day.

The plea spared Hilton from the death penalty, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The 61-year-old Hilton attended the hearing in an orange jumpsuit and a bulletproof vest.

Judge Bonnie Oliver asked Hilton how he pleaded. He replied, "Guilty."

He had been indicted on a single count of murder yesterday in a specially called session of the Dawson County grand jury. The indictment charges he killed Meredith Emerson by blunt force trauma to her head on January 4th.

Darragh said Hilton intended to abduct Emerson to take money from her bank accounts but eventually he knew he would take her life. Darragh said on January 4th Hilton told Emerson he was going to let her go and then struck her several times with a jack handle until she died.

Authorities have said Emerson was believed to have been kidnapped in Union County and killed in Dawson County have said.

Emerson's body was found nearly 50 miles from where she vanished during a New Year's Day hike.

Emerson disappeared near Blood Mountain in Union County.

An autopsy report says Emerson was beaten to death and then decapitated three days after her disappearance.

Hilton was the last person seen with Emerson on the hiking trail and had tried to use her credit card, according to his arrest warrant.

Investigators in North Carolina are also looking at Hilton to see if he was involved in killings in those states.

Elderly couple John Bryant and his wife Irene disappeared in October after a hike. Irene Bryant was found dead from multiple blows to the head. The Bryants' ATM card was used in Ducktown, Tenn., shortly after their disappearance.

North Carolina authorities have said there is a "positive link" between her death, reports, CBS News affiliate WGCL-TV.

It's unknown whether Hilton's potential plea Thursday could touch on any of the other murder cases in which he has been named a suspect, reports the Journal-Constitution.

Hilton has also been named a suspect in the death of Cheryl Hodges Dunlap, whose decapitated body was found in Florida's Apalachicola National Forest on Dec. 15.
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