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More so since the murder weapons were discovered in the dumpster of the store I manage. That was quite an unexpected conversation 18 months ago.
FORT WORTH — When firefighters responded to a raging house fire in Kennedale more than a year ago, the smoke and flames were so thick inside they could barely see. "This structure was free burning and had been burning for a while," said Mansfield Fire Department Capt. Mark Wilson, who battled the blaze with a three-man crew. "It was going pretty good...You couldn't see 12 to 16 inches in front of you from the dense smoke. And it was extremely hot."
While knocking down the fire inside the house at 600 Little School Road, Wilson said they found a body in a bedroom, buried under fire debris.
Later, two more bodies were found in separate bedrooms by a fire crew from Forest Hill.
"We actually, at that point, started looking at [Christmas] stockings and pictures to try and get an idea if there could be other people in there," said Forest Hill Fire Department Lt. Joshua Galbreath. "...We found a half-sized doll and thought we had another one. But it was just a 4-foot doll.”
Fire officials from Kennedale, Mansfield and Forest Hill were on the witness stand all morning Tuesday in state district Judge Ruben Gonzalez's court, testifying about what they discovered when they responded to the early morning house fire on Dec. 17, 2009.
The men were called during the second day of testimony in the trial of John "Johnny" Hummel, who is accused of killing his pregnant wife, Joy; 5-year-old daughter, Jodi; and father-in-law Clyde "Eddie" Bedford and then setting the house on fire. When asked to enter his plea on Monday, Hummel stood mute, while his defense attorney Larry Moore asked the judge to enter a plea of not guilty. The capital murder indictment accuses Hummel of killing two victims - Joy Hummel and Eddie Bedford - during the "same criminal transaction." If convicted, Hummel, 35, a former U.S. Marine who worked as a security guard, would face the death penalty.
Moore, who is defending Hummel with Fred Cummings and Pam Fernandez, has told the jury there was no rational explanation for why the murders occurred and suggested that prosecutors would not be able to prove that they constituted a single, criminal transaction, as required by law. But prosecutors Miles Brissette and Bob Gill maintain that Hummel killed his family so he could be single to pursue a romantic relationship with a woman he had met at a convenience store. They maintain that Hummel beat his pregnant wife with a baseball bat, before stabbing her with two swords and a medieval dagger. Afterward, they said, he went to Bedford's room and beat him to death with a bat, before he killed his sleeping daughter the same way.
Prosecutors maintain that Hummel then put toilet paper rolls next to the victims and lit them on fire.
On Tuesday morning, Galbreath testified that so much fire debris was in the house after the fire was knocked back that he literally counted the family's Christmas stocking to try and determine how many people lived there and if they would find any more victims.
Galbreath first told the jury he had counted four stockings, then corrected himself and said he had counted five. There was also a small, white stocking, he said.
No one spoke it in the courtroom, but the inference was clear for whom the tiny stocking was for: Joy Hummel’s unborn baby.
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/06...#ixzz1PHM2Pejn
FORT WORTH — When firefighters responded to a raging house fire in Kennedale more than a year ago, the smoke and flames were so thick inside they could barely see. "This structure was free burning and had been burning for a while," said Mansfield Fire Department Capt. Mark Wilson, who battled the blaze with a three-man crew. "It was going pretty good...You couldn't see 12 to 16 inches in front of you from the dense smoke. And it was extremely hot."
While knocking down the fire inside the house at 600 Little School Road, Wilson said they found a body in a bedroom, buried under fire debris.
Later, two more bodies were found in separate bedrooms by a fire crew from Forest Hill.
"We actually, at that point, started looking at [Christmas] stockings and pictures to try and get an idea if there could be other people in there," said Forest Hill Fire Department Lt. Joshua Galbreath. "...We found a half-sized doll and thought we had another one. But it was just a 4-foot doll.”
Fire officials from Kennedale, Mansfield and Forest Hill were on the witness stand all morning Tuesday in state district Judge Ruben Gonzalez's court, testifying about what they discovered when they responded to the early morning house fire on Dec. 17, 2009.
The men were called during the second day of testimony in the trial of John "Johnny" Hummel, who is accused of killing his pregnant wife, Joy; 5-year-old daughter, Jodi; and father-in-law Clyde "Eddie" Bedford and then setting the house on fire. When asked to enter his plea on Monday, Hummel stood mute, while his defense attorney Larry Moore asked the judge to enter a plea of not guilty. The capital murder indictment accuses Hummel of killing two victims - Joy Hummel and Eddie Bedford - during the "same criminal transaction." If convicted, Hummel, 35, a former U.S. Marine who worked as a security guard, would face the death penalty.
Moore, who is defending Hummel with Fred Cummings and Pam Fernandez, has told the jury there was no rational explanation for why the murders occurred and suggested that prosecutors would not be able to prove that they constituted a single, criminal transaction, as required by law. But prosecutors Miles Brissette and Bob Gill maintain that Hummel killed his family so he could be single to pursue a romantic relationship with a woman he had met at a convenience store. They maintain that Hummel beat his pregnant wife with a baseball bat, before stabbing her with two swords and a medieval dagger. Afterward, they said, he went to Bedford's room and beat him to death with a bat, before he killed his sleeping daughter the same way.
Prosecutors maintain that Hummel then put toilet paper rolls next to the victims and lit them on fire.
On Tuesday morning, Galbreath testified that so much fire debris was in the house after the fire was knocked back that he literally counted the family's Christmas stocking to try and determine how many people lived there and if they would find any more victims.
Galbreath first told the jury he had counted four stockings, then corrected himself and said he had counted five. There was also a small, white stocking, he said.
No one spoke it in the courtroom, but the inference was clear for whom the tiny stocking was for: Joy Hummel’s unborn baby.
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/06...#ixzz1PHM2Pejn
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