He killed his Kennedale family to run off with another woman. Tonight, he was executed.
A Kennedale man who failed in an effort to kill his relatives by poisoning their pasta but completed the task when he stabbed, bludgeoned and burned them the next day was executed Wednesday evening by chemical injection in a Texas prison.
John Hummel received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the December 2009 killings of his pregnant wife and father-in-law, the Associated Press reported. Hummel also killed his 5-year-old daughter.
Hummel stabbed his wife, Joy Hummel, then used a baseball bat to beat to death his daughter, Jodi Hummel, and his father-in-law, Clyde Bedford, who used a wheelchair. He then set their home on fire.
Prosecutors said that Hummel killed the victims because he wanted to pursue a romantic relationship with a woman he met at a convenience store. Hummel fled to Oceanside, California. He confessed to the killings.
The Associated Press reported that strapped to the death chamber gurney, Hummel said a brief prayer that ended with him saying 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,” he added.
As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began to take effect, he took a half-dozen breaths, then began snoring quietly. About a minute later, all movement stopped, although his eyes did not completely close. He was pronounced dead at 6:49 p.m., 13 minutes later.
“It was too easy,” Cecil Bedford, whose brother was among those slain, said after watching Hummel die, according to the AP. “It was like going to sleep.” He said a punishment more severe 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.”
Hummel’s crimes were unconscionable and began when he tried to slash his pregnant wife’s throat, Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Sharen Wilson wrote in a statement.
“The kitchen knife was too dull, and she fought back, so he grabbed a nearby aluminum baseball bat and repeatedly hit Joy in the head with it,” Wilson wrote. “When she fell to the floor, he grabbed decorative swords and a dagger and stabbed her 35 times, killing her and their unborn daughter.
“Then he went to where his disabled father-in-law, Clyde, was sleeping and bludgeoned him to death with the bat. Finally he went to the bedroom of his own daughter, Jodi. He used the bat to repeatedly hit her in the face and head, killing her. Clyde and Jodi were beaten so badly that they could only be identified through DNA testing,” Wilson wrote.
Hummel, 45, was working as a hospital security guard when he committed the killings. He was convicted of capital murder in the deaths of his father-in-law and wife.
Michael Mowla, Hummel’s attorney, told the AP that he would not file a last-minute appeal. All available legal avenues had been exhausted, Mowla said.
This story was originally published June 30, 2021 at 7:55 PM.
