Associated Press
HOUSTON (AP) — A Houston woman held captive by a man she had once been in a relationship with sent a text to her mother saying she was being threatened with a gun and pleading for help before he fatally shot her, six children and her husband, authorities said.
Neighbors on Monday said they were aware of the family’s troubled history of domestic violence, with prior police visits and contact with Child Protective Services.
Along with Jackson, 40, those killed were identified as her husband Dwayne Jackson, 50; and their children Dwayne, 10; Honesty, 11; Caleb, 9; Trinity, 7; and Jonah, 6. Also killed was 13-year-old, Nathaniel, who was believed to be Conley’s son from the relationship with Valerie Jackson.
Authorities and neighbors said Valerie Jackson and Conley had recently ended their relationship and that she had reunited with Dwayne Jackson Sr. Last month, Conley was charged with assault after allegedly pushing Valerie Jackson’s head against their home’s refrigerator. In 2013, Conley was charged with aggravated assault for threatening Jackson with a knife. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine months in the county jail.
Vilma Flores, 61, who lives next door to Jackson and Conley, said the home was troubled.
“They didn’t take care of (their children.) The two would go to the store or somewhere else and they would leave them alone,” she said.
Carlos Sanchez, who lived across the street from the family, said he would sometimes see the youngest child, Jonah, playing in the street with his siblings and no adults around.
Sanchez said that last year he found the couple’s 13-year-old son Nathaniel in their neighborhood after the boy tried to run away from home because Conley had tried to shave his head.
“I told the kid, ‘If (Conley) does something to you, just tell somebody. Tell somebody.’ He said, ‘I will,'” Sanchez said.
Estella Olguin, a spokeswoman for Child Protective Services, said her agency had been involved with the family, but she declined to offer more details.
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. Neighbors said they saw deputies come to the home at least twice earlier Saturday, knock on the door and then leave when no one answered.
“Police knew about it. And I’m just shocked that they didn’t actually do anything to prevent it,” Sanchez said.
Sgt. Craig Clopton, the lead investigator, said Sunday he can’t “reveal the exact parameters of those decisions.”
“There are certain circumstances when we can make entry and certain circumstances where we can’t. Even though we want to, sometimes the law prohibits that. … It wasn’t until officers looked in the window and actually saw somebody injured that the decision was made that now we have enough to go in.”
Investigators have declined to say when on Saturday the victims were shot or if any victims were alive when deputies first tried to enter the home.
Anderson said it would be three to four months before her office decides whether to seek the death penalty against Conley.
According to USA Today, last month he was wanted for slamming girlfriend Valerie’s head into the refrigerator.
Why was he there anyway? His wife was elsewhere.
Their whole family was effected by it. The whole family including the kids and all suffered from the consequences of an adulterous relations which led to domestic abuse and ultimately killing.
According USA Today News/Khou reports, David Conley is married and has 28 year-old daughter by his wife. He was arrested for the murders of his girlfriend and family on his 29th year anniversary to his wife Vanessa Conley. She married him at age 19, and separated after a year.
She makes the following statement about her husband, “I said it once before, I will say it again to you. He is the devil” .