Biloxi man gets two life sentences for sexually assaulting sisters for years

A Biloxi man was given two life sentences after being convicted of 14 counts of sexual battery of two sisters.

45-year-old John Pierre was found guilty late Wednesday in Harrison County following a two-day trial. The jury deliberated just three hours before returning the verdict. The life sentences will run consecutively instead of together.

The case stemmed from an August 2022 complaint to Biloxi Police by a mother who said her teenage daughter told her Pierre had been assaulting her for several years. The mother then learned he also had been sexually assaulting her other daughter. When the mother confronted Pierre, he fled.

Investigators learned Pierre began the sexual assaults in Louisiana when the girls were 6 to 7 years old. The abuse continued when the family moved to Biloxi. Pierre would wait for the mother to leave the house and then assault the girls.

The jury heard a recording one of the victims made when confronting Pierre about the crimes. In the recording, Pierre made incriminating statements and told the victim she was trying to destroy his innocence.

When police tried to stop Pierre to arrest him, he fled again and Biloxi, Gulfport and Harrison County Sheriff’s Department pursued him from Woolmarket to the Canal Road area of I-10.

“The victims showed amazing courage in participating with the investigation and telling the jury what the defendant did to them. Their strength in facing their abuser and detailing the horrific sexual abuse that he subjected them to shows their immeasurable strength,” said Assistant District Attorney Billy Stage, who prosecuted the case with Meaghan Smith.