A 54-year-old American from Florida has attacked a year again after his release, despite two prior convictions for murder and attempted murder and decades in prison. Eric Pierson was arrested last Friday in Fort Lauderdale for the murder of Erika Verdecia, 33.
The victim’s family is taken aback. “How did this guy end out on the street?” “Why?” said Carmen Verdecia, her mother. “This time he’ll pay the price. We’re not going to stop until he’s in the electric chair.”
On Saturday, after being missing for three weeks, the slain woman’s corpse was discovered in a canal near Fort Lauderdale. Pierson has now admitted to stabbing the single mother of a 6-year-old girl four times with a screwdriver on September 25, according to police.
The police even stopped him during a traffic check on the same day. Erika Verdecia was a passenger in Pierson’s vehicle at the time, but police claimed she didn’t seem to be in any danger.
Pierson told detectives that Verdecia had gone away when he stopped to refuel soon after the traffic stop when police were informed of her missing on October 4. He said he hadn’t seen her since. However, security footage revealed that the couple had been at the gas station before the traffic stop, according to authorities.
Pierson, who is two meters tall, was thus questioned once again last Friday. His pickup was also checked, and blood was discovered inside. The corpse was discovered in the canal some hours later.
convictions in the past
Pierson has just been released since September 2020, after serving 27 years of a 40-year sentence for the murder of Kristina Whitaker, a 17-year-old girl, in 1993. A woman’s neck was slashed during a break-in. That lady somehow survived the assault. Pierson was sentenced to 18 years in prison but was freed after four years on parole.
Pierson’s mother, Verdecia, told the South Florida SunSentinel that she could not understand how he could continue on with his life after such convictions. “This really doesn’t stop. I don’t understand why they release such criminals. They release killers. These people should never be let out again.”
