Florida: Paroled Convicted Murderer Allegedly Admits to Murdering 33-Year-Old Woman

A recently paroled convicted murderer in Florida has been charged with first-degree murder for allegedly killing a mother of a young child.

Eric Pierson, 54, was charged on October 16 with first-degree murder after allegedly admitting to stabbing Erika Verdecia, 33, four times with a screwdriver, according to the Associated Press. The admission came hours after Verdecia’s body was located in a canal in Davie, Florida.

Verdecia, who was a mother to a young daughter, went missing on September 24, according to an October 17 tweet from the Sunrise Police Department.

According to an arrest affidavit, Pierson allegedly told police the murder took place on September 25 when he allegedly stabbed her in each eye and twice in the neck, Fox News Reports.

The victim’s mother, Carmen Verdecia, says that it took days for police to report her daughter missing, according to NBC 6. “Three, four, five, six days the police telling me she could be anywhere,” she explained. “No, this is not what my daughter would do.”

Carmen reached out to friends on social media in an attempt to locate her daughter, the Associated Press reports. One friend informed her that she saw Erika with a man named Eric Pearson at a sandwich shop. The friend described him as “grimy.”

Carmen searched his name on the internet and was mortified to see multiple news stories about his past murder conviction and attempted murder conviction, according to the Associated Press. “I flipped out,” Verdecia said. “I told (police) my daughter was seen with a killer. And then they started looking for her. But it was too late.”

Pierson was released from prison on September 3, 2020, after serving 25 years of a 40-year sentence for being convicted of second-degree murder, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. 

The conviction stemmed from the 1993 murder of 17-year-old Kristina Whitaker as Pearson reportedly strangled and beat the teenager, according to the Associated Press. The case led to parole reform which required convicts to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences, but the change could not be enforced retroactively, which resulted in Pierson’s 2020 release. 

Pierson also served a sentence for first-degree attempted murder in 1985 after he allegedly broke into a woman’s home and slit her throat. He was sentenced to 18 years but was paroled four years into his sentence. 

“Why is this guy in the streets? Why?” Carmen Verdecia told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “He’s going to pay this time. We’re not going to stop until we see him in the electric chair.”

“He stabbed her, in the neck and in the eyes,” Verdecia told reporters Sunday, according to WSVN. “Come on! How am I supposed to feel? And they get this man out [of prison] to murder my daughter. How is the justice system OK?”

Court documents show that Sunrise police interacted with Pierson and Erica Verdecia in the convicted murderer’s truck during a September 25 traffic stop, according to the Associated Press. Police say that she was a passenger in the vehicle and did not seem to be distressed, the outlet says. 

Pierson was communicated with authorities on October 4 and told investigators that Verdecia had left him and his vehicle while he was filling up his gas tank after the September 25 traffic stop, according to the Associated Press. Surveillance footage shows the two getting gas before the traffic stop.

Pierson was questioned by police again on October 15, and authorities investigated his truck and discovered blood, the Associated Press reported. Later that day, police received a call from Pierson’s girlfriend, who explained he would watch the canal behind her home and say, “damn, that bitch stinks.” She explained that he told her, “If they don’t find a body, they don’t have a case.”

Veronica’s body was located in the Davie canal the next morning on October 16, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.