Olathe ? A man pleaded guilty Wednesday to snatching a suburban Kansas City teenager from a store parking lot, raping her and strangling her with her own belt before trying to conceal her body in a park.

Edwin Hall, 27, of Olathe, pleaded guilty to capital murder, aggravated kidnapping, rape and aggravated sodomy in the June 2007 death of 18-year-old Kelsey Smith, who was taken from a Target store parking lot. Grainy surveillance video from the store showed Hall walking out of Target and Smith later being confronted and pushed into her car.

The Overland Park teenager’s body was found four days later about 15 miles away in a Missouri park.

The guilty plea means Hall avoids the death penalty. The only possible penalty for the capital murder charge is life in prison without the possibility of parole, District Judge Peter Ruddick said during Wednesday’s hearing. Each of the other three counts carries sentences of more than 12 years in prison to more than 54 years in prison.

Hall quietly said “guilty” when asked by Ruddick how he pleaded to each charge. He did not comment further and was quickly escorted from the courtroom when the hearing ended.

One of Hall’s attorneys, Carl Cornwell, told reporters afterward that his client agreed to the deal after deciding that he eventually would be found guilty.

“He decided that (defense attorney) Paul Cramm’s work can’t perform miracles. : The best he could hope for was life,” Cornwell said. “He will die in the penitentiary.”

Hall’s plea came during what was scheduled as a change-of-venue hearing. However, Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline said his office and Hall’s attorneys had been discussing a possible deal for a while.

“It’s a victory for justice, but it’s not a celebration,” Kline said after the hearing. “Mr. Hall is no longer presumed innocent. He is guilty of capital murder.” Kline also said Hall had no chance for appeal.

During Wednesday’s hearing, the courtroom was filled with Smith’s family and friends, many of whom had to stand in the aisles and in the hallway outside the crowded courtroom as Kline laid out what happened the day Smith was abducted.

Kline said Hall told authorities that when he first saw Smith at the Target store, he had just had a meal at a nearby On The Border restaurant that he did not pay for. Hall said he thought Smith was 12 years old and had “nice legs.”

Kline spoke for about 20 minutes and said Smith was strangled for several minutes “in a particularly cruel and heinous way,” Kline said. And based on wounds to Hall’s ear and knuckles, Smith “fought for her life,” Kline said.

Smith’s body was found in a small hollow in heavy woods, with sticks laid across her body. The sticks found on Smith’s body matched sticks found in the back of Hall’s pickup, Kline said.

“She was nude and her belt, which had been turned into a murder weapon, was still around her neck,” Kline said. Smith’s shirt was found near her body stained by bleach, “as if someone had attempted to use bleach to destroy forensic evidence.”

A couple walking near Longview Lake, about 45 yards from where Smith’s body was found on June 6, saw a man matching Hall’s description coming out of the woods on June 3. The man was carrying a duffle bag and walked to a black pickup that had several wooden sticks in the back. The sticks matched those found on Smith’s body.

The hearing came a day after Ruddick ruled that prosecutors could still seek the death penalty for Hall, even though Kline failed to put his address, telephone number and registration number on a legal notice.

Kline said later that Ruddick’s decision may have influenced the timing of the plea.