VIDALIA — Sixteen-year-old Connor Wood showed no emotion Wednesday as a judge sentenced him to three consecutive life sentences for the deaths of his parents and a teenage neighbor.

Wood was convicted of three counts of second-degree murder April 16 in connection with the March 2007 deaths of his parents John and Geraldine Wood and 16-year-old Matthew Whittington.

Attorney Paul Lemke, who represented Wood, asked Judge Leo Boothe to allow Wood to serve the sentences concurrently, but Assistant District Attorney Brad Burget objected.

“He made the decision to take three lives,” Burget said.

The conditions of the mandatory life sentences included that they are without possibility of parole, probation or suspension of sentence.

Before the sentencing, Judy Whittington, Matthew’s mother, and Robin Kaiser, Connor’s aunt, made statements before the court.

“The grief that has been thrust upon this family as well as the community is beyond comparison, and literally tears me apart every day,” Judy Whittington said. “If I sleep at all, I awake with the gut-wrenching realization I don’t have my precious son Matthew. Most people get to wake from their nightmares.”

Whittington went on to describe Matthew as a serious, shy and inquisitive boy who would refrain from even killing spiders.

“If you knew Matthew, you would have know how much he detested violence,” she said.

No one should ever have to outlive their children, and the pain of the experience was compounded by the brutality of the killings, Whittington said.

Calling Wood a “soul-less coward,” Whittington said when she saw the crime scene pictures of Matthew’s murdered body during the course of the trial, it made her even more determined to see her son get justice.

“(Wood) chose his new life, and I hope he gets everything he deserves,” she said.

Kaiser directly addressed Wood when she spoke before the court.

“I’m sorry you thought that whatever was going on in your life you couldn’t come to one of us,” Kaiser said. “I hope wherever you go you can find the Lord in your heart so he can forgive you for what you’ve done.”

When she first received the call there had been three fatalities at the Wood home, Kaiser said at first she thought Connor was one of them, and that, in a way, he was.

“We lost three people, your mother, your father — and you,” she said.

John and Geraldine Wood were gunned to death while they slept in their bed, and Whittington was killed in the hallway of the house.

All three victims were shot multiple times.

Wood has one year to file a motion for the to reconsider the sentence.