A Lawrenceville man accused of stabbing his three young sons, killing two, and then blaming the attack on his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend pleaded guilty to murder charges Tuesday in Gwinnett County.

Elvis Noe Garcia-Nelasco, 25, was sentenced by Chief Superior Court Judge Melodie Snell Conner to life in prison. Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said that Garcia-Nelasco would be eligible for parole in 30 years. And since the Honduras native who worked as a roofer is in the country illegally, he will likely face deportation if he is released.

Garcia-Nelasco called 911 on on Feb. 9, 2011 and said his children were stabbed and that he had been stabbed in the heart by the boyfriend of the boys’ mother.

In a grisly crime scene that startled even seasoned detectives, 3-year-old Bradley Garcia and 1-year-old Edward Garcia were found dead in the basement apartment of the house they shared with another family on Bridle Path Drive near Lawrenceville. Bradley’s twin brother, Joshua, was hospitalized in critical condition.

Cardenas was initially arrested and charged with murder after being pulled over and arrested in a traffic stop. However, he was exonerated and freed when financial records and surveillance footage from a local convenience store and a bank ATM proved he was elsewhere at the time of the stabbings.

The focus of the investigation turned to Garcia-Nelasco when detectives noticed inconsistencies in his statements and when a medical examiner determined that his stabbing wound may have been self-inflicted.

Detectives who interviewed Garcia-Nelasco at the hospital for over two hours finally obtained a confession.

In court Tuesday, Garcia-Nelasco apologized to three sisters who were seated side-by-side on a courtroom bench behind him and asked the ladies to care for his surviving son, who has fully recovered from his injuries. Garcia told told his sisters to tell his mother, who is in Honduras, that he loves her and assured them in Spanish “I will be fine.”

Garcia has been held in the Gwinnett County jail without bond since February 2011.