By the Associated Press and KFDI News:

Authorities say a central Kansas man accused in a triple murder avoided the death penalty by pleading guilty to four felonies.

Harvey County Attorney David Yoder said Tuesday that 39-year-old Jereme Nelson agreed on Jan. 10 to plead guilty in the October 2016 deaths of two men and a woman in rural Moundridge. Nelson had been charged with capital murder.

The plea deal calls for a sentence of nearly 40 years.

Yoder says the deaths resulted from a drug deal that went bad. Nelson’s girlfriend, 35-year-old Myrta Rangel, pleaded guilty in July 2018 to federal firearms charges after admitting she gave a gun to Nelson before he went to the victims’ home.

The bodies of  33-year-old Travis Street, 37-year-old Angela Graevs and 52-year-old Richard Prouty were found at a rural home.  Nelson and Rangel were arrested in Mexico in early 2017 and returned to Harvey County to face charges.