Police in Zion, Ill. arrested former Texas prison inmate Jerry Hobbs Tuesday in the murders of his 8-year-old daughter and his daughter’s 9-year old friend.

Hobbs, 34, is scheduled to appear in court for a bond hearing Wednesday.

Officials said they were not able to discuss evidence in the case as they announced the arrest late Tuesday afternoon, but the county coroner said the girls died of multiple stab wounds.

He was released from the Texas Department of Corrections on April 12 after serving time for assault.

Wichita County, Texas, Assistant District Attorney Rick Mahler said Hobbs was arrested on August 4, 2001 after arguing with Sheila Hollabaugh in a trailer park.

Authorities say Hobbs grabbed a chainsaw and began chasing other residents.

Someone subdued Hobbs by hitting him with a shovel. No one was hurt.

Hobbs was convicted of aggravated assault and sentenced to ten years probation, but he failed to appear for his required meetings. His probation was revoked in 2003.

He and his father-in-law, Arthur Hollabaugh, found the bodies of 8-year-old Laura Hobbs and 9-year-old Krystal Tobias on Monday in a park that is known as a place to be avoided because of assaults, illegal hunting and teenage drinking.

The girls were out for a Mother’s Day bicycle ride on the park’s bike paths when they were killed.

Hollabaugh said he and Hobbs were out looking for the girls when they came across his granddaughter’s bicycle.

Hollabaugh says they stopped to call police and that's when the father found the bodies and started screaming.

The coroner says the girls were evidently killed where their bodies were found.

They weren’t bound and had not been sexually assaulted, the coroner said.