Arlington suspect accused of killing man over water bottle wanted on bond violation
An arrest warrant has been issued for an Arlington homicide suspect accused of a bond violation, according to court records.
Darian M. Watts is accused of failing a drug test, and an arrest warrant was issued for him on Jan. 24, according to Tarrant County criminal court records.
Information was not available on Thursday on the type of drug he allegedly tested positive for.
It is the second time in a year that a warrant has been issued for Watts accusing him of a bond violation.
Watts is accused of stabbing 25-year-old Drew Jones to death in April 2018 in the parking lot of an Arlington apartment complex. The fight that led to the killing started over a water bottle, according to Jones’ family.
In April 2019, Watts, who is from Grand Prairie, was released on $25,000 bond.
But a warrant was issued a few days later for Watts over bond violations. Details of those violations were not available on Thursday.
“I feel he is out on the streets still enjoying life while my son is gone,” Jill Thompson of Arlington, Jones’ mother, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in April 2019.
Bond conditions included reporting to the community supervision and corrections department of Tarrant County and paying fees, abstaining from use of illegal drugs or alcohol, not purchasing weapons, submitting urine samples and permitting a supervision officer to visit the suspect’s home.
Watts was arrested and booked into the Tarrant County Jail on April 29, 2019, but he was released on Sept. 26, 2019, after posting $50,000 bond.
Thompson said her son moved to Texas in 2012 to be near his family. He had been living with his father in Illinois.
The family lived in Fort Worth and Bedford and finally settled in Arlington. Drew Jones had four brothers and a sister.
Arlington police officers responded to a disturbance call about 9 p.m. on April 11, 2018, in the 1700 block of West Randol Mill Road.
“This group of people called Drew names,” Thompson said in a telephone interview in April 2019. “They wanted to fight, but Drew didn’t do anything.”
At about 6 p.m. on April 12, 2018, Drew Jones and his brother went back over to the apartment complex on West Randol Mill Road to visit friends. That same group of people were there.
“He (Drew) accidentally knocked over a water bottle, and one guy yelled at him,” Thompson said. “A girl pushed Drew and then Drew starts getting punched by a person behind the girl.”
Thompson said she knows this happened because her other son witnessed the attack.
At some point, Thompson said, her son was stabbed in his left chest, but continued to fight another man in the attack. Everyone scattered when Arlington police arrived.
