The last few times Danny Rolling was in court, he sang country songs about Jesus and the love of his fiancee.

On Tuesday, he sang another, darker tune.

Three years after being named a suspect in the August 1990 killings of five Gainesville college students, Rolling entered a surprise guilty plea to five counts of first-degree murder, three counts of rape and three armed burglaries of their apartments.

Killed in the murder spree were Christina Powell, 17, of Jacksonville; Sonja Larson, 18, of Deerfield Beach; Christa Hoyt, 18, of Archer; Tracy Paules, 23, of Pembroke Park; and Manuel Taboada, 23, of Carol City. All were stabbed to death; three of the women were raped. Hoyt was decapitated and her head was placed on a bookshelf, investigators said.

“Danny Rolling admitted committing these crimes alone,” State Attorney Rod Smith said after the hearing. “As I sit here today, I have no reason or information … that Danny Rolling’s account is not accurate.”

There is no evidence, prosecutors said, implicating one-time suspect Edward Humphrey of Indialantic. But there is plenty, more than confessions, against Rolling.

Authorities linked Rolling to the killings from evidence found at a campsite in southwest Gainesville after a bank robbery on Aug. 27, 1990 – hours after the last two students were murdered. Rolling escaped, but later was convicted of the robbery.

A cassette tape was found at the campsite. On it, he sang songs and hinted about bad things he had done. Rolling said he planned to send the tape to his mother and brother.

Investigators also found a 9mm pistol and a screwdriver, thought to be the one used to break into the apartments.

In court, prosecutor Smith gave Circuit Judge Stan Morris an outline of the state’s case – a needed step to support Rolling’s guilty plea. Smith’s outline was a chilling tale of victims surprised in the night or, in Hoyt’s case, when she returned home from playing tennis.

The murders started with Larson and Powell on Aug. 24, 1990, followed by Hoyt on Aug. 25 and Paules and Taboada on Aug. 27.

Rolling carried a pistol and a Marine Corps Ka-Bar knife he bought in Tallahassee, Smith said. Women victims were bound with duct tape and stabbed repeatedly. All but Larson were raped.

While the recitation answered many questions about the deaths, it did not answer how or why Rolling selected his victims.

In addition to incriminating statements Rolling has made to investigators and cellmates over the past few years, Smith said there was plenty of circumstantial evidence.

DNA analysis of semen found at all three crime scenes matched Rolling’s genetic makeup, Smith said.

Blood consistent with Taboada’s was found at the campsite. And other fibers from Gatorwood and the Tallahassee knife-sale receipt also support the case against Rolling, Smith said.

Public Defender Rick Parker said Rolling’s plea was designed to spare the victims’ families further grief.

“In reaching his decision, Mr. Rolling has emphasized honesty and his belief that the pleas of guilty are the right thing to do,” Parker said. “An important consideration in this decision has been Mr. Rolling’s concern for the families of his victims.

“These last comments may sound bizarre to many people because of their difficulty reconciling them with reprehensible acts like rape and murder. The best explanation lies in the fact that Danny Harold Rolling is, and has been since before these crimes, mentally ill. I do not offer this as any justification for the criminal murders.”

In fact, as part of the plea, Rolling and his lawyers had to acknowledge that he was legally sane and competent at the time of the killings.

Regardless of any explanations Rolling may offer during sentencing, Smith said he will not change his intentions to seek the death penalty.