The retrial of Bradley Morales came to a sudden conclusion Thursday afternoon, as Morales changed his plea to guilty.

After nearly three days of testimony Morales told the court he had decided to change his plea. Acting as his own attorney, Morales had spent the prior days trying to poke holes in the state’s case against him, which had previously found him guilty of AA-Felony murder in 2018 for the stabbing of Sharmaine Leake. The North Dakota Supreme Court later threw out his conviction after the court had been closed in violation of his rights to a public trial, setting up the two-week retrial that instead came to an abrupt end with his surprise change of plea.

The guilty plea came after the jury was shown footage of his statements to police shortly after the events that lead to Leake’s death. Judge Douglas Mattson pressed Morales to confirm his intentions, which he did. Judge Mattson has ordered a pre-sentence investigation, and the state’s prosecutors are seeking a sentence of no more than 40 years, which was his original sentence for the 2018 conviction.