LITTLE ROCK—Ronald James Ward, who was sentenced to life in prison for killing a 25-year-old New Jersey woman at a Morrilton rest stop, has drawn two more life terms for slayings of women in California.

Ward, 42, was already serving a life sentence for killing a man in Montana when DNA evidence linked him to the murder of Kristin Laurite and the two California slayings. All four of Ward’s killings were committed in a four-month span in 2000.

On Tuesday, Ward pleaded no contest in Merced, Calif., to two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths Shela La Rae Polly, 32, of Modesto, and Jacquelyn “Jackie” Travis, 49, of Merced.

Ward, a drifter and former truck driver, said he left West Virginia on a moonshine and heroin binge before Laurite’s killing on Aug. 25, 2000. He pleaded no contest in Morrilton on June 14, 2007.

Laurite’s mother, Lynn DiBenedetto, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in a phone interview from New Jersey that she is grateful Ward entered the pleas in California.

“I’m so happy (the victims’ families) won’t have to go through a trial,” DiBenedetto said. “Hopefully, this will bring them some peace of mind. Although I’ve said before, you never get closure.”

During Ward’s Arkansas sentencing, DiBenedetto told Ward he was a coward and said she hoped he would become the prey of other prisoners so he would understand the terror her daughter felt.

On Tuesday, Polly’s 11-year-old daughter, who was 3 years old when her mother was killed, told Ward, “I hate you. There’s one thing I would like to know and only from you: Why did you do it?”

Ward didn’t answer and remained expressionless through the hearing.

The first link in the killings came in 2002 when DNA from Travis’ crime scene matched DNA from the Laurite killing. It took until 2005 for Ward to be linked to the slayings. He was convicted in 2001 for the October 2000 killing of Craig Petrich, 43, of Hamilton, Mont.

Prosecutors said it is hard to believe that Ward’s killings spanned only a few months in 2000.

“We believe it highly unlikely that Ronald Ward started and stopped killing in 2000,” Merced County District Attorney Larry Morse II said. “We are afraid there might be more victims out there.”

Birgit Fladager, Stanislaus County district attorney, said authorities are asking other agencies to explore whether Ward can be tied to unsolved murders.