Waukegan, Ill. ? The man accused of stabbing to death his 8-year-old daughter and her best friend hunted his child down in a park in a fit of rage because she was supposed to be grounded for stealing money, prosecutors said Wednesday.

A judge denied bail for 34-year-old ex-convict Jerry Hobbs after prosecutors said he admitted in videotaped and written statements to beating and stabbing his daughter Laura Hobbs and 9-year-old Krystal Tobias on Mother’s Day.

He claimed the older girl pulled a knife on him, but prosecutors said they doubt that.

The girls were found dead Monday in a park in Zion, the day after they never came back from a bike ride.

“You can see through the injuries to these two individuals the rage that was exhibited. This was a slaughter of two little girls,” prosecutor Jeff Pavletic said.

Hobbs, who had been released from a Texas prison last month, said he thought Laura had stolen money from her mother, prosecutors said. She was supposed to be grounded on Mother’s Day, but her mother let her go out and play, so Hobbs went out to find her and bring her home, Pavletic said.

But when Hobbs found the girls, Laura refused to go home, and he beat and stabbed the girls with a small kitchen knife, prosecutors said. Hobbs then allegedly dragged them into the woods and left them.

Hobbs told investigators that Krystal pulled the knife to defend her friend, and he wrested it away. But prosecutors said they doubt the little girl was carrying a blade.

“It was a brutal beating, repeated punching of the two little girls and then repeated stabs,” attorney Michael Waller said.