HOUSTON – Testimony began Tuesday in the capital murder trial of a man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, her husband, and six children, including one of his own.
David Conley is accused of breaking into the family’s Harris County home on Aug. 8, 2015, holding them hostage, then shooting them to death one by one.
RELATED: Accused mass killer David Conley transferred from jail to hospital
Prosecutors revealed Facebook messages sent by victim Valerie Jackson to her mother in Minnesota the morning of the murders.
Jackson wrote “911″ four times, followed by “He has pone” and “Dvd has a gun”.
Barbara Yankse said at first she struggled to decipher her daughter’s messages but figured out that “Dvd” meant David Conley.
Prosecutors played the three 911 calls Yankse made to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office that day at 10:41 a.m., 12:12 p.m. and 5:35 p.m., pleading for a welfare check.
Several deputies took the stand testifying what they did and didn’t do when they responded to the scene each time.
They said they never heard anyone inside the home, were unable to contact anyone inside on the phone, and couldn’t enter without a warrant.
On the third visit to the home, one deputy testified he was able to see into a window and spotted a child with a gunshot wound to the head in a pool of blood on a bed.
SEE MORE: The Harris County Sheriff’s Office published a detailed timeline of events a day earlier.
David’s daughter, Natalie Conley, testified that she spoke to her father on the phone twice on the day of the murders. In the first call, when she asked if he was at her mother’s home and what was going on, she said David denied being there. In a phone call later that evening, she said David tearfully confessed to killing her mother.
A Harris County Sheriff’s Office hostage negotiator testified that David called 911 to report a break-in when deputies kicked in the door, finally making entry to the house. The call was transferred to the hostage negotiator, and he said David admitted to killing Valerie Jackson and her husband Dwayne.
If convicted, David faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Attorney: David Conley, man accused of murdering 8 people, is mentally incompetent