BELLEFONTAINE — A Logan County grand jury indicted Samuel Littleton II on Tuesday as the first step of a plea agreement worked out earlier this week.

The Bellefontaine resident is accused of killing his girlfriend’s daughter and two county residents in their 80s.

County Prosecutor Gerald Heaton said charges presented to a grand jury Tuesday included three counts of aggravated murder and three counts of gross abuse of a corpse.

Littleton, 37, is accused of killing Tiffany Brown, 26, who was found buried under a pile of scrap wood in the basement of her mother’s house, where Littleton also lived. He has also confessed to killing Dick and Gladis Russell and dumping their bodies in Tennessee and Georgia, respectively.

Littleton is expected to accept a plea agreement that will mean life in prison without parole and spare him the death penalty, Heaton said.

Heaton and the victims’ relatives said the agreement is probably the best option.

“I think this is correct,” Heaton said. “If we seek the death penalty, it probably doesn’t go to trial for at least eight to 12 months.”

Even if Littleton is sentenced to death, he could appeal the decision for as long as 18 to 22 years.

Littleton, who remains in custody in West Virginia where he was arrested in February after a manhunt, is expected to waive his extradition to Ohio this morning as part of the plea agreement, which would have him plead guilty to all charges as early as Thursday morning, Heaton said. Sentencing could happen as well on Thursday.

Susan Coder, a niece of the Russells, has said that even a trial would not guarantee the family would ever know the full story of how and why Littleton killed their loved ones.

“This is closure,” Heaton said. “They know that (Littleton) is going to die in prison. They don’t know the exact date, but they know he’s not getting out.”