CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Even before he was accused of killing three women and stuffing their bodies in trash bags, Michael Madison didn't like females very much, one ex-girlfriend testified in court Wednesday.

Bemoaning ill-will between himself and his mother, the accused serial killer told his lover that "he can't stand the female species," she testified at trial.

Madison's distaste for women was exacerbated by a contentious relationship with his ex-girlfriend and mother of his two children, whom he told police that he disliked so much that he was hesitant to see his children for fear of dealing with her.

Madison now faces execution if convicted in the deaths of three women, two he admitted to killing in videotaped police interrogations shown to a jury in his trial.

Police found the body of 18-year-old Shirellda Terry in Madison's garage on July 19, 2013. One day later, the decomposing corpses of 28-year-old Shetisha Sheeley and 38-year-old Angela Deskins were found in a lot and vacant home nearby.

The extent of Madison's shattered relationship with his mother is not yet fully clear. He complained about her in police interrogations and regularly to people close to him, according to court testimony Wednesday.

But his ex, Brittney Darby, told the jury Wednesday that she saw Madison call his mother regularly on holidays, speaking on the phone for hours at a time. When police found Terry's body at his apartment, Madison fled to his mother's home on the East Side of Cleveland. There, he barricaded himself and engaged in a standoff that lasted over an hour before his surrender.

Several of Madison's former female companions have said that they, too, had heard him express a distaste for women. That didn't stop him from charming numerous women, including Darby, into close relationships.

Madison had more than one relationship with women in the years leading up to his arrest. He dated Darby starting during the summer of 2012. He invited her to move into his apartment, which she reluctantly agreed to do in October 2012.

Darby said Madison told her their relationship was exclusive. But a short time after she moved in, he began seeing another woman, Shawnte Mahone, and maintained relationships with both women, sleeping with Mahone the night before his arrest and calling Darby for support the next morning when police arrived at his apartment.

Other women were also seen in and around his apartment, and several female neighbors testified that he invited them over to smoke marijuana. Madison, unemployed while he was living at Hayden and Shaw, sold marijuana to a steady stream of customers, according to neighbors.

A woman claiming to be an ex-girlfriend appeared anonymously on television shortly after Madison's arrest, claiming that he liked young girls and had threatened her with a gun at one point during their relationship.

She told WOIO television that Madison had followed her and attempted to charm her as they were passing on the street, mirroring how prosecutors say he introduced himself, under the name Ivan, to Terry on July 3.

Mahone similarly testified that he had followed her out of a Subway restaurant near his East Cleveland apartment and into the cafe where she worked. She warmed up to him and they began dating a short time later, she said.

Darby and Mahone described scratches that appeared on Madison's face around the time he admitted to killing Sheeley and Terry. Darby testified that she asked him about a sour smell in his apartment on two occasions.

He told her raccoons died in the closets, she said. When asked if she could look, he grabbed her shoulder softly and said, you don't want to see it, it's gruesome.

Police later found stains of decomposition fluid and maggots on the carpet.

The bodies were found wrapped in blankets and paisley sheets, some of which Madison used to cover up drafts in two French doors that separated his living room from a porch, Darby said.

Calling from prison, Madison told Darby over the phone that someone handed him a missing-persons flier with Terry's face on it about a week before he was arrested. Family and friends mobilized after the 18-year-old didn't return home from work one night.

Prosecutors expect to wrap up testimony by the end of this week, the fourth since trial started April 4. Madison's defense attorneys also expect to call witnesses.