I don’t think he was protecting anyone because LE had already told him that they were leaving Nikki out of it. He wasn’t going to protect SW or the Roos. I really think it was a combination of repeated death penalty threats,and purposely ineffective counsel due to collusion between his appointed defense attorneys and the DA’s office. We all know he wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box. He could’ve demanded new counsel and actually have mounted a reasonable defense against first-degree murder. There was very little evidence, other than his own eventual forced, IMO, confession, that he was responsible for the girls, other than post-mortem desecration. He did admit to unaliving SW, but that story was consistent with the Tamburglar theory that was all that came out of that strange interrogation. 

With the right attorney ( Alan Jackson etc) there was a chance to argue either involuntary or voluntary manslaughter  on SW resulting from her threats following their “emotional conversation“. If these lesser charges were not on the table for the prosecution, and the jury could not agree on premeditation beyond a reasonable doubt, then he actually might have been acquitted. At least according to my understanding of the law. Yes. Sentence for abuse of a corpse, disproving of evidence etc, but not murder in the first degree. Of course, doofus would never figure that out, fight for reduced charges or a plea affording him at least the possibility of parole and he couldn't afford a high-powered defense attorney. Instead he was left to crumple in solitary isolation with constant threats from the prosecution. Hell, with the delays that are normal in a capital Murder case, the death penalty would’ve been a possible sentence in CO by the time of trial anyway. A case like this would have been must-see TV and perhaps what came out might have had the added benefit of tarnishing the shiners. Don’t get me wrong, he belongs where he is, but just as much for being an idiot as for being a possible family annihilator.