Kansas City, Mo. ? A man who blamed mental illness and anger over his victims’ drug use for killing five people in his home was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without parole.

Gary Beach, 59, of Kansas City, pleaded guilty in February to five counts of first-degree murder and five counts of armed criminal action in the city’s worst killing spree of the 1990s.

Jackson County Judge Charles Atwell sentenced Beach to 10 life sentences five of them without the possibility of parole. The sentences are to run consecutively.

Beach admitted shooting to death his stepson, Michael Davis, 32, who shared the home; a roommate, Mark Nelson, 28; Jeral Nickerson, 61, of Kansas City; Christopher Conrad, 27, of Overland Park, Kan.; and Kenneth Gulley, 45, of Independence, Mo.

The judge had the option to sentence Beach to death.