Kansas City, Mo. ? A man who was imprisoned for robbery when a DNA hit linked him to a string of five rapes was sentenced Thursday to life in prison.

A DNA sample taken from Gary L. Jackman in May 2005 linked him to the five cases. Four of the victims lived in the midtown and Westport area of Kansas City when they were attacked in 1985 and 1986.

Jackman, now 55, was sentenced after pleading guilty Thursday in Kansas City Circuit Court to five counts of felony sodomy and six counts of forcible rape. He was sentenced to one life term for each of the 11 counts. The terms will run concurrently and not consecutively.

He won’t be eligible for parole until 2020.

Police said all of the victims were sleeping or in bed when Jackman slipped into their homes, threatened them with weapons, assaulted them, then ordered them to shower in an apparent attempt to destroy forensic evidence.

DNA samples were collected from the victims and, in one case, from a victim’s sheets, and were matched to Jackman after the DNA sample was taken.

Jackman had nine previous convictions in California and moved to the Kansas City area in 1981 after his release. Jackman was convicted in 1990 of first-degree robbery and had been eligible for parole on that charge in January 2008.