The mother of the Colorado man who pleaded guilty earlier this month to killing his pregnant wife and two daughters says she believes he was coerced into taking a plea deal and did not commit all three murders.

As CrimeOnline previously reported, Chris Watts pleaded guilty last Tuesday to murdering his pregnant wife Shannan Watts and their two daughters, Bella, 3, and Celeste, 4. Watts’s surprise guilty plea came less than three months after the murders, and after Chris Watts had tried to pin the blame for his daughters’ murders on Shannan, who he admitted to strangling in a “rage” after allegedly seeing her strangling Celeste via the baby monitor in their Frederick home.

In an interview with Fox 13 Denver, Chris’s mother Cindy Watts said via Facetime that she believes her son is not responsible for killing his daughters.

“He did kill her, but the kids, no. It’s very difficult, very difficult. I can’t imagine my son doing that. He couldn’t have done that,” Watts said.

Cindy, who lives in North Carolina, says her family has not been able to speak to Chris Watts, but didn’t say why. She reportedly spoke to him just after his arrest in mid-August, which is how she came to believe Shannan had killed the little girls.

“I want to stop it before it’s too late. I want to talk to him. I want to be able to talk to him. I love my son no matter what and I want to fight for him, and I don’t want him to go down for something he didn’t do,” Cindy Watts said.

Watts is scheduled to be sentenced on November 19, and will avoid the death penalty as a result of his guilty plea. He is expected to serve consecutive life sentences for the murders.