A detective was left shocked by a man’s ‘straightforward’ confession to murdering his wife and her parents.
In March 2021, Jesse Huy’s wife, Tonya Huy, and her mother and step-father, Linda and Ronald Koehler, were visiting the couple’s home in Strafford, Missouri.
Huy’s in-laws had reportedly overstayed their welcome, leading him to allegedly lose his temper and fatally shoot all three of them.
Tonya’s parents had come to assist her as she recovered from back surgery performed a week earlier. However, Huy reportedly ‘felt intruded on’ and ‘disrespected’ as their visit extended to a full week, according to court documents viewed by PEOPLE.
Huy called 911 on himself and, while in custody, was very blunt with the detective questioning him.
“I shot my wife and her mom and her step-dad [in] cold blooded murder this afternoon,” he was heard saying in CCTV footage of the interview.
“Shot them each twice in the head.”
The detective responded: “Well, that’s about as straightforward as it gets. I’ll go ahead and ask you why you’d do that, Jesse?”
Huy explained that he’d allegedly ‘lost his temper’ and that his in-laws had come to Missouri to visit Tonya after her surgery.
He claimed that he didn’t get along with his mother-in-law and tried to avoid spending time with her.
Huy suggested that this wasn’t the first time his in-laws had shown up unannounced.
Regarding why he shot his wife, he alleged that she would often side with her parents when he expressed his dislike of their behavior.
According to Law & Crime, he stated: “So I went outside. I got my gun. I walked back in. I shot them all in the head. Then I shot them all in the head again to make sure they were down.”
Investigators reported that Huy also requested the detective ensure he wasn’t placed with anyone else while in a cell, WVLT reported.
“Now that I’ve just murdered three people, I ain’t got nothing holding me back,” he said.
PEOPLE reported that Huy was scheduled to go to trial in October 2023, but he changed his plea to guilty and was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder.
In January 2023, Huy was sentenced to three consecutive life terms in prison without the possibility of parole, along with nine years for armed criminal action.
Huy’s attorneys stated they had no plans to appeal his conviction at that time.