Thirty days after their daughter was last seen alive, Meredith Emerson's parents confronted her killer Thursday in a Dawson County courtroom with angry words and raw emotion.

Flanked by five armed deputies, Gary Michael Hilton acknowledged his guilt in the brutal decapitation of the 24-year-old hiker remembered by her father as "an inspiration who stood for all things good."

Phil Skinner / AJC

Gary Michael Hilton listens to the judge during the proceedings.

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Hilton will immediately begin serving a life sentence in the Georgia state penitentiary in Jackson. He will not be eligible for parole until 2038, when the drifter and petty criminal will be 91 years old.

Hilton's plea is the latest development in a case that has shocked Georgians, spread fear among hikers and captured national media attention.

The murder case has moved swiftly to a close since Emerson went missing on New Year's Day. That day, witnesses saw Hilton, 61, talking to Emerson on a hiking trail on Blood Mountain in Union County. On Jan. 4, authorities found bloody hiking clothes belonging to Emerson in a garbage bin near a Cumming convenience store where Hilton had placed a call from a pay phone, according to an arrest warrant.

The next day, police captured Hilton near Chamblee after 911 callers spotted him cleaning out his white van at a service station on Ashford Dunwoody Road.

In the Dawson courtroom Thursday, Hilton wore a bulletproof vest and displayed no emotion. He made no eye contact with his victim's parents, who sat just a few feet away — though at one point during the proceedings, Meredith's father, David Emerson, stared quizzically in Hilton's direction.

In his statement to the court, Emerson revealed bitterness toward Hilton: "I only pray that he suffers immensely for his heinous acts and that even his fellow inmates recognize his evil and malevolence for mankind and treat him with appropriate measures."

As he returned to his seat, David Emerson broke down in tears.

Hilton stared straight ahead as Susan Emerson, Meredith's mother, took the stand with a biting statement of her own.

"I believe he is nothing more than a bully and a weak-minded coward who preys on others," she said. "He fancies himself a survivalist while anyone can see he's a scared little man on the run. He's the fool who goes through life too ignorant to realize he is a fool. Meredith has exposed him."

Hilton chose Meredith as a victim because she was "female and alone," said Dawson County District Attorney Lee Darragh.

Known for her fitness from hiking, running and practicing martial arts, Meredith fought with Hilton, who had trouble subduing her, Darragh said. In their struggle, he dropped a police baton he'd recently bought — a clue that search teams would later find.

Hilton's motive was financial, though he never obtained any money from Emerson's bank account, Darragh said. She repeatedly gave her captor false PIN numbers as he attempted to withdraw money from ATM machines, he said.

On her final night of captivity, Emerson was tied to a tree in Dawson Forest Wildlife Management Area. She died Jan. 4 from repeated blows to the head from the handle of a car jack.

After he was arrested in DeKalb County the following day, Hilton refused to tell officials where he left Emerson's body. But once Union County's chief prosecutor promised not to seek the death penalty, Hilton relented.

Darragh was bound by that agreement not to pursue a death sentence, said UGA law professor Ron Carlson. Thursday's murder conviction, however, could make it easier for prosecutors in Florida and North Carolina to seek the death penalty if Hilton is implicated in three other slayings in which he's named as the prime suspect.

"It doesn't make any difference if the judge sentences him to life or life without parole," Carlson said. Considering his age and deteriorating health, Hilton is unlikely to face a death sentence, which can be drawn out by years of appeals.

Hilton's court-appointed attorney, Rob McNeill, confirmed his client has stage II multiple sclerosis, a chronic and incurable disease that affects the central nervous system. The disease kills parts of the brain that help carry electrical signals and can lead to muscle weakness, poor coordination and balance and other problems.

Though Hilton remained silent in court, McNeill said Hilton realizes the harm he's caused. "He understands now what a special person Meredith was," McNeill said.

Asked what triggered the murder, McNeill said Hilton was devastated by the loss of his job working for a Chamblee siding company.

"There were some other factors," McNeill said, but he would not elaborate.

The defense and prosecution agreed they had never worked on a murder case that concluded so quickly.

"January on its last date is safer than January on its first [when Meredith was abducted]," said Peggy Bailey, Meredith's godmother.

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

•Florida authorities say Hilton is a suspect in the slaying of Cheryl Hodges Dunlap, 46, of Crawfordville, Fla. She disappeared Dec. 1 and was found dead in Apalachicola National Forest on Dec. 15.

Florida State Attorney Willie Meggs said the Dunlap case was still being treated as a "law enforcement matter," and that officials are continuing their investigation.

•North Carolina officials have named Hilton as a suspect in the October slaying of avid hikers John Bryant, 79, and Irene Bryant, 84. The Bryants were last seen alive Oct. 20 in the Pisgah National Forest in western North Carolina. Irene Bryant's body was found bludgeoned three weeks later while John Bryant remains missing and is believed dead.

The news of Hilton's pending guilty plea was well-received by North Carolina authorities.

"I'm glad to see they're moving in this direction and getting this guilty plea, and that it might provide some closure to the family of Miss Emerson," said David Mahoney, sheriff of North Carolina's Transylvania County.

Mahoney said he expects Hilton's plea "could certainly open some doors to us that haven't been open before." Although North Carolina officials have not charged Hilton, Mahoney said he anticipated they will charge him with murder.

In Palm Bay, Fla., Bryant's family remained hopeful John's body would be found.

"I'm sure [Hilton's] attorneys are talking to him now," the Bryants' daughter, Holly, said Thursday morning. "I'm sure they are trying to get a deal to save his life, but I hope that they find my father's remains."

Jeremy Redmon and Rosalind Bentley contributed this article.