ANDERSON — Nathaniel Dickson pleaded guilty Monday to murdering four family members, and his four consecutive life sentences will guarantee that he will spend the remainder of his days in prison.

The 20-year-old man who committed the murders about a year and a half ago hung his head for most of the hearing in Anderson Tuesday and answered the judge with simple “yes, sir,” and “no, sir” answers.

His attorneys and Solicitor Chrissy Adams agreed that Dickson seemed to have suffered with “dissociative amnesia” and therefore didn’t actually recall the crime that took place at 135 Pine Lake Drive in Anderson County’s Slabtown community.

“Thank you for accepting my plea, and I apologize to the families for what I put you through,” Dickson said near the end of the hearing, the only time he said anything other than “yes, sir,” and “no, sir.”

Judge Cordell Maddox expressed concern regarding the fact said Dickson couldn’t remember the tragic event of Saturday, April 26, when Nathaniel Dickson’s father “Andy” Dickson, step-mother Martiza Hurtado Dickson, step-sister Melissa Jiliam Salaza and brother Taylor Dickson were found shot to death.

Dr. Robert Richards said dissociative amnesia could occur when someone was intoxicated, had some type of mental disorder or had an extremely painful situation that his brain prevented him from remembering. Richards said that after meeting with Dickson 21 times over 18 months, he never sensed that Dickson was intoxicated or insane.

“I never saw him as illogical. … His thinking was never disillusioned,” Richards said.

Despite the apparent memory loss, a written statement that he filled out shortly after the crime and other evidence compiled by law enforcement and attorneys were enough for Maddox to accept Dickson’s guilty plea.

Anderson County Sheriff’s Office detective Stephen Reeves said shortly after police apprehended Dickson, they received a detailed account of the event. Reeves later reiterated the sequence of the crime, purposefully changing the sequence, but Dickson corrected him.

“This may be the most unexplained and despicable (case) that I’ve ever seen,” Holland said after accepting the plea. “It’s hard for me to imagine anything worse than the terror that your family went through.”

Maddox said most of the people he’s encountered during his career as a judge don’t seem to be evil people.

“I’ve sometimes wondered in doing this job if there truly is evil in this world,” he said.

“The vast majority are good people who’ve made mistakes. I think you’re one of the rare people that’s just a bad person who did a horrible thing, and you need to be locked up the rest of your life.”

Jon Dickson, Nathaniel’s uncle, said, “We love you and forgive you, but under no circumstances can we forget.”