Texas woman, among 8 killed, had texted mom for help

Doug Miller | KHOU-TV, Houston

Show Caption Hide Caption Mom texted for help before she and her family were killed David Conley is accused of killing his ex Valerie Jackson and her entire family, including six children. Prosecutors say before Jackson was killed, she managed to text her own mother for help.

HOUSTON — A mother held at gunpoint in her home northwest of Houston somehow managed to send her own mother a text message calling for help moments before her former boyfriend massacred her and her entire family, authorities said Monday.

Valerie Jackson's text message led sheriff's deputies to her house Saturday night, the district attorney revealed, but they apparently arrived too late to save the Jackson family.

"My heart goes out to the mother who received the text from her daughter that she was in trouble," said Devon Anderson, district attorney in Harris County, Texas. "And the mother was many states away, but of course, did what any mother's going to do, which is called 911."

David Conley, the 48-year-old accused killer with a history of abusing the woman whose family he allegedly killed, stood stone-faced before a state district judge who outlined the charges that could send him to death row. Conley faces three capital murder charges in connection with the execution style killings of two adults and six children inside their northwest Harris County home.

Conley used to live in the house where he allegedly killed his former girlfriend, her husband Dwayne Jackson, 50, Nathaniel Jackson, 13, Honesty Jackson, 11, Dwayne Jackson Jr., 10, Caleb Jackson, 9, Trinity Jackson, 7, and Jonah Jackson, 6.

“He killed an entire family — a husband, a wife and their children,” said Alysia Harvey, the lead prosecutor in the case.

In court, standing a short distance away from the accused killer, Harvey’s voice occasionally quavered as she described the crime and outlined the charges.

“As a citizen of Harris County, as a mother, anytime you hear about anything that’s this heinous, anytime you hear about the death of this many children in a single event, it is hard,” she said. “And it’s, it’s hard.”

Valerie Jackson’s text message to her mother and the subsequent 911 emergency call led deputies to the home in the 2200 block of Falling Oaks, authorities said. Conley was arrested after a standoff in which negotiators talked him into surrendering.

Conley’s violent behavior apparently led the Jacksons to change the locks on their doors, investigators said, but they believe the accused killer crawled through a window Saturday evening. At some point, the district attorney said, the mother of the house sent a text message calling for help. Authorities said Conley handcuffed the family and shot each of them execution style.

Outside the Jackson family home, friends and neighbors have filled the porch with poignant tributes. Amid the flowers, cards, candles and stuffed animals sits a shoebox bearing a note that reads, “Here are the shoes you wanted, bro. I love and miss you.”

Also sitting on the porch are two small bicycles, one of which was left at the makeshift memorial by a boy named Romello Broussard, a friend of 13-year-old Nathaniel Jackson.

“Nate, he was a cool and fun guy to hang around,” Broussard said with tears in his eyes. “He never made no wrong decision.”

Broussard remembered his friend walking away and going home when other boys tempted him to get into trouble.

“And that’s the type he is,” Broussard said. “He’s a good student. He made good grades. He never got in trouble with the principal. The principal don’t even know his name.”

The family’s trouble with the accused killer was no surprise, Broussard indicated, because Nathaniel often seemed upset.

“He would come outside sad,” Broussard said. “I be asking him like, ‘Why are you sad?’ And he would be like, ‘Oh, my step daddy did this to my momma.’ "

Broussard said his family was out of town for the weekend when he started receiving text messages about the killings.

“I got the text message this morning and I thought everybody was playing about him being dead,” he said. “That’s when everybody just start blowing up my phone, talking about he dead. And I just started crying right there.”

On Sunday, neighbors mourned the victims with some asking why the children would be killed.

"You killed the kids, why?" asked Kathy Sysongkim, a friend and neighbor. "Why? They didn't do anything."

"They were good kids," Sysongkim said. She said she loved them all like they were her own.

"It's not one or two, it's eight in the family," Sysongkim said. "It's terrible."

A capital murder conviction in Texas calls for a sentence of either death or life in prison. 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.”

Contributing: Marcelino Benito, KHOU-TV, Houston.