Clifford Lee, 37, pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of first-degree sexual assault, but his agreement with state prosecutors required him to admit to raping eight women in Anchorage over the course of about 13 years.
The Department of Law announced the plea agreement Monday. Prosecutors said Lee faces about 20 to 35 years in prison for each of the two charges. Lee originally faced nine charges.
"Lee's guilty plea means that his victims do not have to relive the trauma that Lee inflicted upon them. There will be no trial and no uncertainty," the law department said in its announcement.
In summer 2014, the Anchorage Police Department received several reports of sex assaults similar to unsolved cases dating back to 2001 and 2005. Lee, who was working at the Hard Rock Cafe as a cook, was identified as a suspect in the more recent cases, prosecutors said.
Police dubbed Lee a "serial rapist" when he was arrested in August 2014, stating he'd victimized at least four women and tried to rape another within a five-week period.
Lee preyed on vulnerable women who walked alone, were intoxicated and were primarily in the Midtown to downtown areas of Anchorage. Police said that after women got into Lee's 2001 black Chevrolet Tahoe, he would drive to spots in South Anchorage, assault them and frequently threatened to kill them, occasionally using a stun gun to get his victims to comply with his demands.
APD Lt. Anthony Henry said at the time that the case was unique and "out of the norm" because none of the victims knew their attacker – each of the assaults was a chance encounter. The circumstances led police to believe Lee could have other victims.
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Detectives collected Lee's DNA and ran it through a database of convicted felons and other profiles obtained from crime scene samples at the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory in Anchorage. That step connected Lee to the unsolved cases in 2001 and 2005, prosecutors said.
"Lee's guilty plea highlights the importance of reporting a sexual assault even when it seems unlikely that the perpetrator will be caught. Law enforcement agencies preserve evidence collected from sexual assault investigations until the crime is solved," the law department said.
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Superior Court Judge Paul Olson set Lee's sentencing for Dec. 2.
Related: Anchorage man accused of serial rape
Anchorage police: 'Serial rapist' likely had additional victims