FORT COLLINS, Colo. - Troy Graves, accused of being the Center City rapist, was sentenced to life in prison yesterday after he abruptly pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting five women here.

With the Colorado charges resolved, Graves is expected to plead guilty in Philadelphia, possibly within the next two weeks, to charges that he sexually assaulted six Center City women and killed one of them, graduate student Shannon Schieber.

According to the agreement filed with the court, Graves pleaded guilty to the Colorado charges knowing he would get a life sentence without parole. The deal is contingent upon Philadelphia prosecutors' not seeking the death penalty for Schieber's murder, the agreement states.

Under the terms of the deal with Colorado prosecutors, Graves would serve his time there instead of Pennsylvania. Graves reportedly preferred to serve his sentence in Colorado prisons that he viewed as less harsh than those in Pennsylvania.

In carefully worded remarks, Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham would not rule out seeking the death penalty: "We haven't agreed to do anything. Everything is on the table."

Philadelphia officials, however, have been working on a plea similar to Colorado's, law-enforcement officials said.

Abraham's office and lawyers for Graves have been talking for some time, although no plea has been worked out, according to a source familiar with the case. Both sides are working to get a deal, law-enforcement officials said.

Graves' plea was a stunning end to a case that has gripped this college town since a series of sexual assaults began in May 2001. Prosecutors said all of the young women Graves attacked here were in the crowded courtroom, and several sobbed as the defendant pleaded guilty in a clear, soft voice.

Head and beard newly shaved, Graves, 30, never glanced into the courtroom audience. But when District Judge Terence Gilmore asked if he had anything to say, he choked out an apology between sobs.

"To the city of Fort Collins, I'd like to say I'm sorry," he said. "But more importantly, to the people whose lives I affected, I'd like to say I'm sorry.

"I understand that it is unlikely that a single word will perform any miracles of healing or anything. But please understand that these apologies are from my heart."

He also apologized to his colleagues in the military - at the time of his arrest, he was an airman at nearby Warren Air Force Base - "and also my family and friends."

He then thanked those who stayed "true" to him and helped him realize "that I'm still a human being and still capable of some good."

None of his victims spoke in court or to reporters afterward. Prosecutors said that some may testify when Graves faces further sentencing in July.

"The victims were shocked" that Graves spared them an ordeal by plea-bargaining, said deputy district attorney Mary Joan Berenato. "They were very happy they didn't have to go to trial."

From her home in Chevy Chase, Md., the mother of Shannon Schieber said she and her husband were relieved that Graves had pleaded guilty in Colorado.

"I hope it's a guilty plea in Philadelphia, too, and that it's life without parole," Vicki Schieber said last night. "We don't want the death penalty, but we definitely don't want him to ever get out so he can harm anyone else."

Until a deal is "signed and sealed" in Philadelphia, she said, it's not over.

"We'll celebrate the moment, then we'll take a deep breath and go forward. It's like climbing a mountain."

Gilmore also lifted a gag order that had kept law-enforcement officials from explaining how they came to believe that Graves was the man responsible for the series of attacks in Fort Collins last year and in Center City in 1997 through 1999. Schieber, a Wharton student, was killed in one of those attacks.

DNA samples from both cities showed in September 2001 that the same man was responsible. Fort Collins police circulated a composite drawing from Philadelphia; it was the first time residents of Fort Collins had an idea of what the attacker looked like. All the Fort Collins victims had been blindfolded.

Police Chief Dennis Harrison said no single piece of evidence led police to focus on Graves.

"You want to know where's the smoking gun, in a sense," he said. "Folks, there wasn't one. It was just good, tenacious police work."

No Philadelphia officials appeared in court or at the district attorney's press conference afterward.

Graves was sentenced to life without parole on only one count, of first-degree kidnaping. That charge results from one of his attacks, in which he took the victim forcibly to different parts of her house.

Under the plea agreement yesterday, Graves pleaded guilty to assaulting five Fort Collins women; charges filed in connection with assaults on three other women were dropped as part of the deal.

Gregory M. Lammons, chief deputy district attorney, said Graves' public defender had begun exploring the idea of a plea bargain almost immediately after Graves' arrest.

Lammons said his office was determined not to strike any deal that permitted Graves to get anything less in Colorado than life without parole. Colorado has the death penalty only for first-degree murder.

In agreeing to the plea bargain, Lammons said, "we certainly lost nothing."