A Texas man has reportedly admitted to breaking into his ex’s home, handcuffing her, along with her husband and her six children, and shooting each of them in the back of the head, the New York Daily News reports.
Harris County, Texas, deputies reportedly found the bodies of the family of eight inside their Houston home Saturday. David Ray Conley was captured by police and reportedly admitted to the slayings, the Daily News reports.
According to the Daily News, Conley’s ex, Valerie Jackson, had kicked Conley out of her home after their relationship turned bad, changing her locks out of fear.
The 40-year-old mother of six and her husband, Dwayne Jackson, 50, along with 13-year-old Nathaniel Conley, 11-year-old Honesty Jackson, 10-year-old Dwayne Jackson Jr., 9-year-old Caleb Jackson, 7-year-old Trinity Jackson and 6-year-old Jonah Jackson were all killed in the massacre, authorities said. Nathaniel Conley was the alleged killer’s own son.
“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,” Harris County Chief Deputy Tim Cannon said, according to the Daily News.
Conley reportedly surrendered to officers late Saturday after exchanging gunfire with deputies. He is currently being held at a Harris County jail on multiple capital-murder charges
The Daily News notes that court records reveal several domestic disputes between Conley and Valerie Jackson beginning in 2000, when Conley threated to kill Jackson and her child by wrapping an electrical cord around the baby’s neck. He was sentenced to five years in prison for that incident.
In 2013 Conley was again sentenced to nine months in prison for assaulting a family member. Most recently in July of this year, Conley was arrested yet again in yet another assault. He allegedly banged Jackson’s head into a refrigerator when she tried to get a belt away from him. Conley reportedly intended to beat one of her children with the belt.
Read more at the New York Daily News.