Chris Watts sentenced to 3 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole

Chris Watts, the father from Frederick who admitted to killing his pregnant wife and young daughters will serve three consecutive life sentences for pleading guilty.

The sentence was handed down after an emotional day of testimony Monday from the families of both Watts and his wife, Shanann.

The judge said anything less than the maximum sentence wouldn’t be appropriate in this case that shocked the nation with its brutality and senselessness.

“I have been a judicial officer for now starting my 17th year and I could objectively say that this is perhaps the most inhumane and vicious crime that I have handled out of the thousands of cases I have seen,” Judge Marcelo Kopcow said.

Ever since the case broke the two big questions so many people have been asking are: “How?” and “Why?”.

Some of those questions were answered in court on Monday, as Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke laid out details in the case. Before the sentencing hearing, the details were only previously known to investigators.

Rourke said on Aug. 13, after Shanann Watts got home from a business trip, Chris Watts strangled her to death.

Shanann was pregnant at the time.

“The horror that she felt, as he wrapped his hands around her throat and choked the life out of her must have been unimaginable,” Rourke said.

Rouke said Watts killed both of his daughters, Bella and Celeste, as well.

“They both died from smothering,” Rourke said. “Let me say that again, the man seated to my right smothered his daughters.”

Prosecutors say it took Watts two to four minutes to kill Shanann and each of his two daughters.

Autopsy reports show Bella had trauma near her mouth and bite marks inside her mouth.

“Bella fought back for her life,” Rourke said.

Rourke said Watts then loaded and dumped their bodies all in separate locations.

“He ensured they would not be together, even in death,” Rourke said.

Pregnant Shanann was buried in a shallow grave. Both of the little girls were shoved into their own oil tank.

“This defendant took those little girls and put them through a hatch at the top of an oil tank- eight inches in diameter,” Rourke said.

The autopsy showing Bella had scratches on her bottom from being shoved forcefully into the tank, her stomach was also full of oil and other debris.

Rourke said that’s when Watts gave media interviews and began making calls to his daughters’ school saying they’d no longer be attending and contacted a realtor to sell the house.

“He lied to investigators, he lied to the media, and he lied to the public,” Rourke said.

Watts declined to make a statement during his sentencing hearing.

Rourke said Watts committed the murders for a ‘fresh start’ to live out life with a mistress Watts’ had been seeing.

But, Chris Watts hasn’t admitted to that himself.

Watts is sentenced to serve out his time in the Colorado Department of Corrections. It has not been announced which specific prison at which he’ll be incarcerated.