GASTONIA, N.C. -- A Gaston County man says he paid money to get a suspected serial killer out of jail months ago.

Jimmy Vargas said he had known Patrick Burris for years. Burris is blamed for the shooting deaths of five people in a 10-mile area in rural Gaffney, which is about 30 miles south of Gastonia. He was killed during a shootout with police early Monday.

Vargas was at the Gaston County Jail on Tuesday asking for a refund of the bond money that he put up when Burris was arrested on a probation violation charge. He said his mother was engaged to Burris, and they had no idea that he could be responsible for a killing spree.

“I heard it, I know it’s true, but I can’t comprehend,” he said. “He was trying hard to start a new life.”

Vargas said his mother met Burris while he was serving time for being a habitual felon at the Dallas Correctional Facility. She met him at her job while he was part of a work release program at a Kings Mountain plant from 2005 to 2008. He said the pair struck up a friendship and corresponded through the mail, and then the relationship turned romantic.

Vargas said his mother and Burris had plans to live together after he was released from jail. He said Burris did move into a home with his mother in Vale after he was paroled in April 2009.

“He played with my kids. I let him in my house. The person I knew as Patrick is not a serial killer,” he said.

Vargas said his mother and Burris planned to marry, but their plans were derailed when Burris was arrested on a driving without a license charge, which was a probation violation. He said Burris told his mother they could still marry in a year after he got out of jail again, but in June he left the home and disappeared.

Burris was supposed to appear in a Gaston County courtroom on that charge Tuesday.

Vargas said the next time they heard about Burris was after investigators declared he was the Gaffney serial killer.

The Gaffney killings began when peach farmer Kline Cash, 63, was killed June 27. Four days later, 83-year-old Hazel Linder and her daughter, 50-year-old Gena Linder Parker, were found bound and shot in the older woman's home. The next day, Stephen Tyler and his 15-year-old daughter Abby were found shot in their family's furniture store.