State officials want review of slain family's CPS cases

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- There's been a lot of finger pointing involved after six children and two adults were fatally show in northwest Harris County.

Now, some state officials are requesting paperwork and gathering information. They say from the state, to the courts, to CPS and even the sheriff's department, everyone needs to take a closer look at their involvement with this family to see if changes in the system need to be made, and whether anything could've been done to possibly prevent this tragedy.

State Representative And Chairman of Juvenile Justice and Families Issues Committee Harold Dutton says he's spent his entire life here in Texas and doesn't know of a bigger tragedy than this one.

"Six kids man come on. I didn't know the family, but I literally cried. I cried. Do we have the right systems in place to help prevent these kinds of tragedies as much as humanly possible?" said Dutton.

David Conley and Valerie Jackson were no strangers to the system.

The family had Child Protective Services intervention since 2011. After abuse allegations, the children were sent to foster care in 2013. While the state fought to keep the children, a month later judge Glenn Delvin dismissed the case due to "cooperation from the parents."

Dutton says he's spoken to the judge about the case. Dutton also wonders whether case workers do enough.

"What we need to do now is sit down and take a look and step back from this and everybody who plays a role in this take a look at what their specific function was and make sure the function worked the way it was supposed to," Dutton said.

Dutton says that also goes for the Harris County Sheriffs Office.

Deputies did three welfare checks Saturday. Detectives say Conley was inside the home, but deputies didn't try to enter until the third visit, but it was already too late.

"If the sheriff's department went out to the house three times. You would think that if you go out there two times, at least the second time you ought to at least say we're going to do more than just a courtesy check, we're going to go a little further," Dutton said.