RECIDIVIST

Released Florida Murderer Killed Single Mom With Screwdriver: Cops

Eric Pierson allegedly stabbed Erika Verdecia a year after he had been released from prison.

A Florida man convicted of two murders in 1985 and 1993 has been charged with the slaying of a 33-year-old single mother, local authorities said. Eric Pierson confessed to killing his third victim, Erika Verdecia, according to police, saying he stabbed her four times with a screwdriver on Sept. 25. The 6-foot-8 Pierson was charged hours after Verdecia’s body was discovered near Fort Lauderdale on Saturday.

Verdecia, who leaves behind a 6-year-old daughter, was reported missing on Sept. 27, around the time one of her friends told her family she had seen Verdecia with a “grimy” man at a sandwich shop who had said his name was Eric Pierson. In court documents, Sunrise police said officers had had a brief interaction with Verdecia and her alleged killer during a routine traffic stop on Sept. 25. Sitting in Pierson’s truck, she didn’t appear to be in distress.

The 54-year-old convict was released from prison last September after serving 27 years of a four-decades-long sentence for beating and strangling 17-year-old Kristina Whitaker in 1993. Previously, Pierson was paroled four years into an 18-year sentence after breaking into a woman’s home and slitting her throat in 1985. “Why is this guy in the streets? Why?” Carmen Verdecia, the victim’s mother, asked the Sun-Sentinel. “He’s going to pay this time. We’re not going to stop until we see him in the electric chair.”