Guilty plea in Blue Ridge Parkway killing

ROANOKE, Va., March 24 (UPI) -- A man who opened fire on two people along Virginia's Blue Ridge Parkway, killing one, thought he was targeting his son-in-law, prosecutors said.

Ralph Leon Jackson, 57, told investigators he realized after his first shotgun blast that the two people he shot in the back on April 5, 2010, were not who he thought but he continued his attack anyway, the Roanoke (Va.) Times reported Thursday.

Charlottesville radio personality Timothy Phillip Davis, 27, was found by rescue workers at the bottom of a cliff and died five days later. Davis' companion, Christina Floyd, then 18, struggled with Jackson and survived with shotgun pellets in her back and a fractured skull.

Jackson pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of premeditated murder and other offenses in a deal that will spare him the death penalty.

"You're going to get a life sentence out of this on one of these counts, and probably a life sentence as to some of the others," U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Wilson told Jackson.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Huber said Jackson's statement after his arrest indicated he shot Davis because he thought he was his son-in-law and believed he had been doing something to his daughter.

"He told officers he had screwed up and was sorry and he needed to pay for his mistake," Huber told the judge.

Jackson, when asked by the judge whether he disagreed with the prosecutor's account, answered, "No sir."