Texas Inmate Executed for Killing Pregnant Wife, Beating Father-in-Law to Death with Baseball Bat
A Texas inmate was executed Wednesday for an attack that killed his pregnant wife, 5-year-old daughter and father-in-law.
John Hummel received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the December 2009 killings.
Authorities say Hummel stabbed his wife, Joy Hummel, more than 30 times, then used a baseball bat to beat to death his daughter, Jodi Hummel, and his 57-year-old father-in-law, Clyde Bedford, who used a wheelchair. He then set their home on fire in Kennedale, a Fort Worth suburb.
Hummel, strapped to a gurney before his execution, said he would “be with Jesus when I wake.”
“I truly regret killing my family,” he said, then thanked friends for their prayers and support. “I love each and every one of you.”
“It was too easy,” Cecil Bedford, whose brother was among those killed, said after watching Hummel die. “It was like going to sleep.”
He said a more severe punishment would be more appropriate. “A rope, a guillotine, a firing squad. There’s all kinds of good stuff to kill people. They should get what they deserve. An eye for an eye. I’m sorry. I’m old school.”
Prosecutors say Hummel killed his family because he wanted to run off with a woman he met at a convenience store.
After the murders, Hummel fled to Oceanside, California, near San Diego, but was later arrested. Investigators say he confessed to the killings.
Hummel, 45, who had worked as a hospital security guard, was convicted of capital murder for the deaths of his 34-year-old wife and father-in-law. He was not tried for his daughter’s death.
His attorney, Michael Mowla, did not file any last-minute appeals before his execution, saying all available legal avenues had been exhausted.
Hummel’s execution had been scheduled for March 18, 2020, but it was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Bedford’s sister, Cylinda Bedford, said she still doesn’t understand why Hummel killed his family.
She described Joy Hummel, who worked as a massage therapist, as outgoing and bubbly. Jodi had been excited about starting school and Clyde Bedford, who was better known by his nickname, Eddie, “loved that grandbaby,” Cylinda Bedford said.
“Come on, your own baby. You gotta be some kind of monster,” Cylinda Bedford, 54, said of Hummel. “I don’t have no closure.”
Cylinda Bedford said nothing will make up for the loss her family still feels at Christmas and on birthdays. She said a piece of her history was lost when Hummel burned down the family home where her father was born and raised and where her parents raised their children.
Hummel’s attorney argued that his client suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and other issues related to his military service that caused him to “snap” one night.
But Miles Brissette, a prosecutor at Hummel’s trial, said authorities discovered Hummel had previously tried to kill his family by putting rat poison in their food.
On the night of the killings, Hummel stood in his kitchen for 30 minutes so he could “psych himself up” for what he was about to do, and after killing his wife, he caught his breath before fatally beating the others, Brissette said.
“This guy senselessly took the life of a beautiful mother, a beautiful child and a grandfather that just did everything for them. For him to want to be single and just kill them this way is senseless,” said Brissette, who is now a defense attorney in Fort Worth.
Hummel was the second inmate executed this year in Texas and the fifth in the U.S. Last month, Texas resumed executions after nearly a year.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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