Sonny Pierce, 27, is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Kiara Windom, 18, of Harvey, Kimika Coleman, 18, of Chicago, and Mariah Edwards, 17, of Blue Island. A judge denied Pierce bond Wednesday.
"He keep telling me, he's innocent. What is a mother to do if you child says, 'mom, I never murdered anybody.' I'm a mother. What can I do," Esther Pierce told ABC7.
Joseph Vinson says the friend he knows wouldn't hurt anyone.
"I don't believe for a second he would do something like this. He doesn't seem like that kind of person," said Vinson.
Prosecutors say Pierce confessed on tape and investigators found video of Pierce having sex with one of his teeange victims.
"This 17-year-old girl appears to be lifeless, and we believe she was, in fact, deceased when the video was taken," said Cook County States Attorney Anita Alvarez on Wednesday.
Prosecutors say Pierce met the women on dating sites and lured them to his apartment, then killed them.
"I'm relieved, but then I'm not relieved because they don't have the death penalty," Hallena Johnson, Kiara Windom's mother, told ABC7's John Garcia.
"How could somebody like, take out an innocent life like that, you know, like how can he sleep with himself, not once that he did it one time. he did it again and again," said Andrea Coleman, Kimika Coleman's sister.
The alleged murders have some Blue Island residents on edge. Pierce's neighbors say they are troubled that such incidents could be happening so close.
"It's crazy...that's not the kind of violence we usually see around here," said Kevin Scott, neighbor.
A former girlfriend who had a child with Pierce told ABC7 that he was violent with her.
