Court upholds death sentece for dad who murdered 5-year-old daughter, her mother, her grandfather (Houston, Texas)

Family annihilators are nearly always fathers. Dad is identified as JOHN HUMMEL.

http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/e59c08b4f80b46a78ba799b868bfc9f0/TX--Texas-Execution-Family-Killed/#.Uo1YZNco5Ms

Court upholds death sentence for North Texas man in killings of wife, daughter, father-in-law

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

First Posted: November 20, 2013 - 1:52 pm
Last Updated: November 20, 2013 - 1:56 pm

HOUSTON — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the conviction and death sentence given to a North Texas man for the December 2009 slayings of his pregnant wife, 5-year-old daughter and father-in-law.

Attorneys for 38-year-old John Hummel argued evidence was legally insufficient to convict him at his trial in in Fort Worth in 2011, that his trial judge unfairly rejected over a dozen pretrial motions and that one of the sentencing issues decided by jurors is unconstitutional.

Hummel was convicted of fatally stabbing his 34-year-old wife, Joy, and using a baseball bat to beat his daughter, Jodi, and his 57-year-old father-in-law, Eddie Bedford. Evidence showed he then torched their home in Kennedale, a Fort Worth suburb.

Prosecutors said he killed his family so he could pursue other women and party.