HOUSTON (AP) - A family of six children and two parents were handcuffed and fatally shot in the head at a Houston home by a man with a violent criminal history who had previously been in a relationship with the mother and had a dispute with her, authorities said Sunday.
David Conley, 48, was charged with capital murder in the deaths. Conley, who is being held in Harris County Jail, didn't appear at a court hearing Sunday where an arrest affidavit was read. The judge denied him bond.
The dead were identified as parents Dewayne Jackson, 50, his wife Valerie Jackson, 40, and children Nathaniel, 13, Dewayne, 10, Honesty, 11, Caleb, 9, Trinity, 7, and Jonah, 6. Nathaniel was believed to be Conley's son from the relationship with Valerie Jackson. The Harris County Sheriff's Office had earlier said that there were three adults and five children killed.
"We do not - cannot - fully comprehend the motivation of an individual that would take the lives of so many innocent people. Especially the lives of the youngest," said Chief Deputy Tim Cannon of the Harris County Sheriff's Office. "The killer's motives appear to be related to a dispute with Valerie, who was a former domestic partner."
Conley told authorities that he discovered on Saturday morning that the locks had been changed at the home after he had moved out. He entered the home through an unlocked window, according to the affidavit.
Officers later responded to a request to do a welfare check at the house and got no response at the door. They saw through a window a child on the floor with a gunshot wound. Police then heard gunshots coming from the front of the house. A standoff ensued between officers and Conley. He later gave himself up to authorities and was arrested.
Court records show Conley's criminal history dates back to at least 1988, with the most recent incident last month, when was charged with assault. In court documents, authorities say the suspect had been arrested for allegedly assaulting Valerie Jackson. The attack happened at the home where the bodies were found and documents say he was in a dating relationship with her.
Court documents said Conley pushed Valerie Jackson's head against a refrigerator multiple times after she tried to stop him from disciplining her son with a belt. The case was still pending.
In 2013, he was charged with aggravated assault for threatening Jackson with a knife. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine months in the county jail.
In 2000, he was arrested for retaliation, accused of putting a knife to his then-girlfriend, threatening to kill her, her baby and himself. That came after she filed an assault charge against him for cutting her with a knife and punching her in the face. He was sentenced to five years in prison for retaliation. It was unclear if that woman was Valerie Jackson.
The area around the home was cordoned off Sunday, with sheriff's deputies coming in and out of the house and the medical examiner's office having arrived at the scene.
Neighbor Dalila Mercado says when she arrived home Saturday night officers had already blocked off the area. She said she was sitting in her driveway when she heard gunshots coming from the house and officials then told her and her family to go inside their home.
Mercado said she could still see from her bedroom window and watched as a man was escorted out of the house after midnight.
She said officials then had him next to her fence, taking fingerprints and photographs.
"It was shocking. I haven't slept all night," she said.
Mercado says she didn't know the residents of the house well, but would occasionally say hello to a woman and see children waiting to catch the school bus. She said she didn't recognize the man taken out of the house.