The Associated Press

Jerry Buck Inman, left, who pleaded guilty to the rape and murder of Clemson University student Tiffany Souers, speaks with attorney Symmes Culbertson during a sentencing hearing at the Pickens County Courthouse in Pickens on Monday.

The Associated Press

A photo of Tiffany Marie Souers release by her family. Jerry Buck Inman, 37, pleaded guilty Tuesday Aug. 19, 2008 to robbing, kidnapping, raping and murdering Tiffany Marie Souers of Ladue, Mo.

The Associated Press

Bren and Jim Souers, parents of murdered Clemson University student Tiffany Souers, react to her friend's testimonies about her life, during a sentencing hearing for Jerry Buck Inman at the Pickens County Courthouse in Pickens on Monday.

Jerry Buck Inman, of Dandridge, Tenn.,right, talks to his attorney Jim Bannister, before pleading guilty in the 2006 death of Clemson University student Tiffany Marie Souers Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2008, in Pickens, S.C. The convicted sex offender admitted Tuesday that he strangled the 20-year-old South Carolina college student two years ago, leaving her body in her off-campus apartment with her bikini top still wrapped around her neck.(AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)

PICKENS, SC — The second day of testimony in Jerry Buck Inman’s sentencing hearing Tuesday could involve statements from two more witnesses — possibly some of Tiffany Souers’ family.

Inman is in court this week, facing Judge Ned Miller, the man who will decide if he is to live or die for killing 20-year-old Clemson University student Tiffany Souers in May 2006. In August, Inman pleaded guilty to killing Souers. His sentencing hearing is expected to end on Wednesday.

Thirteenth Circuit Solicitor Bob Ariail told Miller that he has one, maybe two more witnesses to call Tuesday in the state’s case as they argue that Inman should be given the death penalty. Souers’ mother and father sat in the courtroom Monday. It is not known for sure if either will take the stand.

Testimony from eight witnesses painted two very different people — one of a young woman who was devoted to family, friends and community and the other of a man who lived through a troubled childhood, began his life of crime at 19 and has tried to kill himself seven times.

In his opening remarks, defense attorney Jim Bannister said Inman has a "biological inheritance" of parents with mental issues and criminal backgrounds and a childhood filled with abuse.

He also said Inman was baptized Friday and that a sentence of life without parole would be worse than death for Inman.

"He is filled with guilt and shame not only for Souers but also for his other victims," Bannister said. "That eats him from the inside out. He can’t understand why he could do what he did. It leads him to the conclusion that he is an animal. And that he deserves to die."

Bannister gave a sketch of Inman’s childhood, revealing the defense’s argument on why Inman should not receive the death penalty.

He told of how Inman, as a boy, was forced to lay on his bunk bed and listen to his sister being molested and of times when Inman was the one being molested — his hands also bound.

Judge Miller learned of how Inman’s father was convicted of trying to rape a woman in much the same way as Inman confessed to doing. Inman was also born to a mother who suffers from schizophrenia, Bannister said.

“Jerry came into this world impaired to start with,” Bannister said.

But in contrast to that picture, the state started its case by presenting a different image.

They started by showing photos of Souers – a smiling, beautiful young woman who was devoted to her friends, family and community before she was brutally murdered at Inman’s hand. Then they spent the rest of the day focusing on three other women whom Inman has admitted to attacking.

All three women describe similar attacks. Their homes were broken into, they were woken up from their sleep by an armed man and then assaulted while their hands were bound behind them.

According to testimony, Inman was convicted on nine crimes between 1987 and 1991. A majority of those charges came from an incident in 1987 when he broke into a Tampa, Fla., apartment and raped a woman there three times while she and her roommate were bound with electrical wire.

He was released from prison on Sept. 1, 2005, after serving less than 20 years for those nine charges.

Then a Sevierville, Tenn., woman told about how she was raped on May 22, 2006 — four days before Souers was found dead. She said she woke up to find a man on top of her with a knife to her throat around 5 a.m. that morning. She was forced to her knees on the floor of her bedroom and tied up with one of her bras while her daughter, who is now 5, cried from the corner of the room.

“He told me to stay calm,” the woman said. “He said, “I’m just here for money and jewelry. I’m not going to hurt anyone. … But then I heard him unbuckling his belt and I said, ‘Oh no. Please don’t do this.”

Another woman, one from Rainesville, Ala., recalled how she was attacked while she was at home on a lunch break on May 23, 2006. She was also held at knife point and tied up by Inman. She was bound at her feet and her hands and forced into her bedroom.

"I was still praying and crying,” the woman said. "He said, it was OK. He laid me back on the bed."

Inman stopped short of actually raping her, the woman said. In his statement he gave to police after he was arrested in Tennessee on June 6, 2006, he said "he just couldn't rape" the Alabama woman.

Authorities revealed at an Aug. 19 hearing that Inman had admitted shortly after his June 2006 arrest to raping and strangling the 20-year-old engineering student from Ladue, Mo., and revealed his handwritten confession.

Souers’ body was discovered in her Central apartment by her roommate on the afternoon of May 26, 2006.

Holly Bergman was that roommate. She was the first to take the stand Monday and in tearful testimony described Souers as a woman who was like a sister to her.

“She loved being that big sister,” Bergman said. “She was always there if you needed her.”

Testimony continues today.