HOUSTON (AP) ? 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. {{more}}
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.
