Houston Home-Multiple Deaths story

Carlos Sanchez, 40, who lived across the street from the family, recalled once finding the oldest child, 13-year-old Nathaniel, after dark on a street in the neighbourhood.

“He’s the devil”, Vernessa Conley told KRIV News of her husband David Conley.

Most of the victims had been handcuffed, and all were shot in the head; some were shot a few times, police have said. Dwayne Jackson, Jr., 10; Honesty Jackson, 11; Caleb Jackson, 9; Trinity Jackson, 7; and Jonah Jackson, 6, are all said to have been the children of Dwayne and Valerie Jackson.

Department of Family Protective Services officials had refused to disclose any information publicly about their history with Valerie Jackson, her husband Dwayne Jackson or David Ray Conley, her ex-boyfriend. “He died for his family and his children”, said Paulette.

Investigators say when Conley discovered that the locks had been changed after he’d moved out, he broke in through a window and shot all eight of them in the head. He said nothing. Conley is charged with capital murder.

Deputies then entered the home and made the gruesome discovery of the eight bodies.

Conley was arrested Saturday evening after a standoff with police in the 2200 block of Falling Oaks, not far from Veterans Memorial and Fallbrook Drive, after Harris County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the home for a welfare check.

She told KRIV she had endured brutal physical, sexual and verbal abuse at the hands of David before leaving him when she was pregnant with their daughter.

Estella Olguin, a spokeswoman for Child Protective Services, said her agency had been involved with the family, but she declined to offer details. Although prosecutors will probably spend months reaching a final decision on whether to pursue a death sentence, the district attorney bluntly told reporters outside the courtroom that “it seems like a no-brainer”.

A man who said he was Jackson’s brother set up a fundraising page to appeal for donations to cover funeral costs and to pay to have his relatives’ remains brought to the US state of Wisconsin.

“I am in fear of my personal safety and I do know what he is capable of”, she wrote in a letter of support for the protection order.

Yanske says he believes they could’ve done more.

Sanchez and other neighbors questioned why authorities didn’t go into the home sooner on Saturday, knowing the family’s troubled history and Conley’s violent criminal record. “Especially the lives of the young ones”, said Chief Deputy Tim Cannon.

Sgt. Craig Clopton, the lead investigator, said Sunday that he couldn’t “reveal the exact parameters of those decisions”.

“There are certain circumstances when we can make entry and certain circumstances where we can’t. The deputies withdrew from the home… and awaited the arrival of the” unit.

Anderson said it would be three to four months before her office decides whether to seek the death penalty against Conley.