EL CAJON, Calif. -- An El Cajon man pleaded guilty Monday to murder and robbery charges stemming from the March 2006 shooting deaths of an East County liquor store owner and one of her clerks.

On Feb. 23, the penalty phase of Jean Pierre Rices' trial will begin. Jurors will be asked to recommend whether the 27-year-old defendant should be put to death or sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Besides two counts of first-degree murder, Rices admitted special circumstances allegations of murder during a robbery and multiple murders, which makes him eligible for the death penalty.

The defendant also admitted that he personally used a firearm in the March 1, 2006, killings of 22-year-old Heather Mattia and 23-year-old Firas Eiso.

Both victims were held up by Rices and another masked robber at Granada Liquor before being shot in the head, authorities said.

Debbie Mays, Rices' girlfriend at the time, testified at an earlier hearing that he told her that he shot the younger woman because she refused to open a safe.

Dwayne Hooks, Mays' brother, testified that Rices told him that he shot Eiso and Mattia after Eiso ripped his mask off.

In a separate case, Rices pleaded guilty to robbing a Washington Mutual bank branch in July 2006 and attempting to hold up a Bank of America branch that same month.

Rices also pleaded guilty to attacking a sheriff's deputy while in custody at the downtown jail.

Anthony James Miller, 23, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of murder charges in the deaths of Mattia and Eiso. His trial is also scheduled for Feb. 23 in the courtroom of Judge Lantz Lewis.

Nichele Delon Hopson, 24, pleaded guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter for being the getaway driver in the robbery/murders and agreed to testify against Rices and Miller in exchange for a reduced sentence.