Suspect in slaying of in-law had killed own parents

DES PERES, Mo. -- A man accused of orchestrating the killing of his sister's allegedly abusive husband killed his own parents in 1964, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported in a copyright story Sunday.

Dennis A. Irby, now 53 and of Raleigh, N.C., was a 15-year-old St. Louis resident when he shot, stabbed and beat his parents. He later told police he killed his father after watching him hit his mother in a jealous rage, then turned on his mother.

Irby ultimately confessed to those killings and was sent to a state mental hospital, the newspaper said, citing its own articles recounting the case as it unfolded.

Last week, Irby was charged with first-degree murder in the Dec. 30 shooting death of Jeffrey Sexton, his brother-in-law, at Sexton's suburban St. Louis home.

Also charged with first-degree murder were Sexton's father-in-law, Ervell Hoover, 75, of Ellisville, and brother-in-law Robert E. Hoover, 35, of St. Charles.

Investigators allege that killing took place about two weeks after Sexton, 43, severely beat his 42-year-old wife, Lois Sexton.

Des Peres police officers say they responded to the couple's home at least six times when neighbors, family and school officials reported abuse, but Lois Sexton repeatedly denied having been victimized.

Police said they could not arrest Jeffrey Sexton because they found no physical evidence of attacks, such as injuries or broken furniture.

After being beaten Dec. 14, authorities said, Lois Sexton finally admitted the abuse to relatives and fled with her 6-year-old daughter to the Raleigh home of her sister and Irby. Police said Irby then traveled to St. Louis to address the problem.

Investigators said Ervell Hoover gave Irby a gun and a vehicle, and that sometime Dec. 30 Irby shot Jeffrey Sexton twice in the head -- the same way Irby killed his father in 1964.

In the latest slayings, Dennis Irby was arrested in North Carolina.

Lois Sexton has not been charged.

The Post-Dispatch stories, in its stories from the time of the 1964 killings, said Irby told police that after his parents fought one night in their two-bedroom St. Louis apartment, "I gave my dad a judo chop." Irby said his father hit him back and sent him to his room, where the son cleaned and loaded a .410-gauge shotgun.

The teenager told police he went into the living room and shot his father, then demanded that his mother write a check so he would have money to flee. The young Irby told investigators he became "dizzy," then found his mother bloody and beaten on the kitchen floor, her throat slashed.

Psychiatrists testified that Dennis Irby suffered from "schizophrenic tendencies" during the 1964 murders, he was committed to the Fulton State Mental Hospital through the juvenile court system.