Texas man charged with capital murder in slayings of 3 kids, attacking mother

The father of one of three children found stabbed and beaten to death in a Southeast Texas apartment they shared with their mother was charged with capital murder Friday in the attack that left the woman with severe injuries. Texas City police Chief Joe Stanton said Junaid Hashim Mehmood, 27, is facing two counts of capital murder along with a charge of aggravated assault.

The children's mother was beaten and shot several times in the face and head with a high-powered pellet gun. Mehmood was arrested late Thursday, just hours after the slain children and their mother — 24-year-old Kimaria Nelson — were discovered by officers in an apartment in Texas City. Mehmood had earlier been identified as a person of interest in the deaths, but he was arrested on an unrelated warrant. Galveston County assistant district attorney Kevin Petroff said it was a misdemeanour warrant for providing alcohol to a minor.

Mehmood was being held in the Galveston County Jail without bond. No attorney is listed for Mehmood in jail records. Police officers responding to a request for a welfare check at the apartment on Thursday evening discovered the bodies of 1-month-old Ashanti Mehmood, Prince Larry Brown, who would have turned 2 later this month, and 5-year-old Angela Pilot. Nelson was alive but unable to speak, police said. Police said Mehmood is Ashanti's biological father and lived with the family at the apartment, police said.

Texas City is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Houston. Nelson was taken the University of Texas Medical Branch in nearby Galveston. Police said she was in stable condition Thursday evening. A hospital spokesman said Friday he had no information for a patient by her name. Records show Mehmood has had previous arrests for offenses that include assault. Court records show that in 2015, Mehmood was convicted of assault causing bodily injury for shoving a family member. He was also convicted a year earlier for assault causing bodily injury for striking a girlfriend — not Nelson — with his hand. Following both convictions, the court said it was against the law for him to have a gun. He was also convicted of robbery in 2015. 

(With inputs from agencies.)