Reportedly, in 2011, a jury in Tarrant County found John Hummel, then 34 years old, guilty of the murders of his pregnant wife, his 5-year-old daughter, and his wheelchair-bound father-in-law at their Kennedale house before setting it on fire. The jury ultimately sentenced Hummel to death.

Court documents state that when police were called to an early morning fire, they discovered charred, battered remains in or close to the victims’ beds. After an investigation, the authorities concluded that blunt force trauma caused their deaths even before the fire was started.

Revisiting John Hummel’s execution for the 2009 triple murder case

Reportedly, John Hummel claimed he was at a nearby convenience store and not at home during the incident during the initial stages of the interrogation. He was eventually captured at the California-Mexico border, following which he admitted to committing the murders.

Hummel confessed to stabbing his pregnant wife Joy Hummel around 35 times before beating his young daughter Jodi Hummel and father-in-law, Clyde Bedford, to their deaths using a baseball bat before torching his home. Investigators recovered the murder weapon, which matched his DNA and both victims’, in a bin.

According to the prosecution, he murdered his family on the night of December 17, 2009, to flee with a woman he had met at a store. Following the fire, Hummel escaped to Oceanside, California, but he was apprehended and ultimately admitted to the murders.

The trial also revealed that John Hummel had allegedly tried to murder his family by poisoning their food on one occasion. Miles Brissette, a prosecutor at Hummel’s trial, told the court:

After being found guilty of capital murder for the killings of his father-in-law and wife, John was sentenced to death by the jury during the murder trial.

The delayed execution finally occurred in 2021 when Hummel, a former hospital security guard, was executed with a lethal dose of pentobarbital at the state prison in Huntsville. Reports state that while he was shackled to the stretcher in the execution chamber, Hummel uttered a quick prayer:

He reportedly also expressed his regret and guilt for murdering his family in his last statements:

While family members of the victims were unsure of Hummel’s reasons for committing the heinous murders of his daughter and pregnant wife, his father-in-law’s brother, Cecil Bedford, expressed his thoughts on the execution after watching him die, stating that the murderer should have received a more grievous punishment. He said:

While talking about the death of her grandkid, Bedford’s sister, Cylinda, said:

Since Texas resumed executions after a hiatus of almost a year, John Hummel was the second prisoner to be executed in 2021.

Watch ID’s Sins of the Father to catch the whole story this Wednesday, June 15, 2022.

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