Stephen Barbee, 54, is accused of asphyxiating Lauren Underwood, then 34, and her son Jayden, 7, and then taking their bodies to a wooded area to bury them in a shallow grave.
A Texas death row inmate convicted of murdering his pregnant ex-girlfriend and her son before burying them in a shallow grave is scheduled to be executed in October.
Stephen Barbee, 54, strangled to death Lauren Underwood, 34, in 2005 after an argument over his refusal to leave his wife. At the time, she was seven months pregnant with his child.
On the night of the murder, her seven-year-old son ran into the room before he was also killed.
Barbee then took their bodies to a wooded area where he buried them in a shallow grave.
He was convicted after a three-day trial in 2006, though he has maintained his innocence, having filed multiple petitions and having had a 2019 appeal rejected by the state.
Barbee met Underwood in 2003 at a bagel store she co-owned in Fort Worth, Texas, according to MSNBC. They broke up in late 2004 after she discovered Barbee was also seeing one of her neighbors.
By that time, she was pregnant and friends said she had decided to raise the baby without Barbee, who was the father according to court documents.
Lisa Underwood, seen with 7-year-old son Jayden, was seven months pregnant with Barbee's child at the time of their murder. She had planned to raise the baby alone after breaking up with him.
On February 19, the day of the killings, a sheriff's deputy had stopped Barbee while he was walking along a service road in the wooded area. He gave the deputy a fake name and then fled.
Underwood was reported missing by friends when she didn't show up to her own baby shower, according to the Houston Chronicle.
A pool of blood was found in her home but no sign of forced entry. That prompted an Amber Alert sent out nationwide on February 21.
The next day, Barbee was arrested and charged with the murder in the town of Tyler, nearly 120 miles east of Fort Worth.
Police said that Barbee initially denied killing Underwood and her son but eventually confessed to a detective in an unrecorded conversation in a bathroom.
Prosecutors claimed that Barbee said he started a fight with Underwood before holding her face down in the carpet until she stopped breathing,
