LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A man suspected of shooting his ex-wife and killing her new husband, a distant cousin of former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, wrote her threatening letters from jail that prompted police to get an arrest warrant.
Police in Arkansas couldn't arrest Donald Hux, however, because he was in custody in Texas and later Louisiana. He was released from jail Thursday, and authorities say he turned up at his ex-wife's home in Arkadelphia on Sunday morning and shot her husband, Sandy Huckabee, in the head.
Sandy Huckabee's father is the first cousin of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's father.
Police say Hux then kidnapped his ex-wife, Amy Huckabee, and their three children, the youngest of whom is just 3 years old. He drove to his father's house about 80 miles away and left the children there.
Authorities found Sandy Huckabee's body on Sunday morning. That night, sheriff's deputies found Hux and Amy Huckabee in a vehicle near a gravel road in a rural part of southern Arkansas' Union County.
"We don't have the autopsy back, but the officers saw him shoot her," Chief Deputy Bill Hickman said.
Hux died after a shootout with sheriff's deputies, none of whom were hurt.
Amy Huckabee told police in August that Hux had been sending her threatening letters.
"My ex-husband is in jail in Lubbock, Texas," she said according to an Aug. 1 police report. "He has continued to send me letters off and on for months, but the one I got today was just too much. ... I'm scared that if and when he gets out he will come after me."
The Associated Press obtained copies of Hux's handwritten notes. In them, he calls his wife a number of foul names.
"I'm surprised churches don't catch on fire just because you walk through the doors," he wrote in part of one letter attached to a court document.
Hux also said he wished his wife would have a heart attack or develop breast, cervical or lung cancer.
"When I get done your gonna want to kill yourself to put yourself out of misery. Thats the only way you'll get any relief from the hell I'll cause you," he wrote.
Amy Huckabee knew her ex-husband was being released from jail. She spoke often with a detective in Louisiana, including on the day he was released and the day after, Caddo Parish Sheriff spokeswoman Cindy Chadwick said.
"She was very concerned," Chadwick said.
A man who answered the phone at a number listed for Hux and his father said, "There's no comment to be made right now."
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