A convicted Florida murderer who was released from prison on parole last year has been arrested and charged with fatally stabbing a single...
A convicted Florida murderer who was released from prison on parole last year has been arrested and charged with fatally stabbing a single mother with a screwdriver and dumping her body in a canal after her disappearance three weeks ago.
Eric Pierson, 54, was booked into the Broward County jail on a count of first-degree murder for the slaying of Erika Verdecia, 33, hours after her body was found on Saturday near Fort Lauderdale.
Sunrise police say the 6-foot-8 Pierson confessed to stabbing the 5-foot-7, 160-pound victim four times with a screwdriver - twice in the neck and once in each eye - during a fight on September 25, but claimed that it was self-defense.
Pierson had been released from prison in September 2020 after serving 27 years of a 40-year sentence for the 1993 beating and strangulation murder of 17-year-old Kristina Whitaker, whose death helped galvanize a push for longer prison sentences. He had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
Eric Pierson, 54 (left), a convicted killer, has been charged with first-degree murder for the stabbing of Erika Verdecia (33), a single mother from Florida
Verdecia's body was found in a Davie canal on Saturday, three weeks after she was reported missing by her family
Florida did away with parole after the slaying, requiring convicts to serve at least 85 per cent of their sentences. But the change could not be applied retroactively and Pierson was still eligible, leading to last year's release.
In 1985, Pierson had broken into a home and slit a woman's throat, but the victim survived. He served just four years of an 18-year sentence for first-degree attempted murder before being paroled.
Verdecia's mother told the South Florida SunSentinel she doesn't understand why Pierson was free to attack her daughter.
The 6-foot-8 Pierson was released from prison in September 2020 after serving 27 of a 40-year sentence for a 1993 murder
'Why is this guy in the streets? Why?' Carmen Verdecia told the newspaper. 'He's going to pay this time. We´re not going to stop until we see him in the electric chair.'
Verdecia's family had reported her missing September 27, three days after she left home and never returned. Her mother reached out to her friends on social media and one said she had seen Verdecia with a 'grimy' man at a sandwich shop who told her his name was Eric Pierson.
Carmen Verdecia searched his name on the internet and was horrified to see newspaper stories about his earlier murder and attack.
'I flipped out,' she said. 'I told (police) my daughter was seen with a killer. And then they started looking for her. But it was too late.'
Sunrise police said in court documents they had a brief interaction with Pierson and Verdecia during a September 25 traffic stop - the day Pierson told detectives he killed her. She was a passenger in Pierson's pickup truck and did not appear to be in distress, police said.
When police contacted Pierson again on October 4, he told investigators that Verdecia had walked away when he stopped to get gas shortly after the traffic stop. He said he never saw her again.
But surveillance video shows the pair had been at the gas station before the traffic stop, police said.
Verdecia had been stabbed four times with a screwdriver. She is survived by her 6-year-old daughter
Police say they questioned Pierson again on Friday. They say he let them search his truck and they found blood in the backseat.
His girlfriend later Friday called police to say he would stare at the canal behind her home and say, 'Damn that bitch stinks.' She told police he had also said, 'If they don't find a body, they don't have a case.'
The girlfriend also reported seeing rocks and debris piling up in the canal, according to Local10.
Verdecia's body was found in the canal by police divers just hours later.
The woman is survived by her 6-year-old daughter. Carmen Verdecia told the SunSentinel on Sunday her granddaughter still thinks her mother will be coming home.
'I Will Miss you Forever, but your love will carry on !' the grieving mother wrote on her Facebook page. 'I promise Justice will be served ‘!!'
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