Second murder suspect arrested in Arlington case where wrong man was killed, police say
A second suspect was in the Harris County Jail on Thursday and accused of being involved in a May Arlington homicide where the wrong man was killed, Arlington police said.
David Paul Jones was taken into custody on Saturday in the Houston area by officials with the U.S. Marshals Service. He will be returned to Tarrant County in a few days.
Jones faces a charge of murder in the shooting death of Robert Cooley III on May 4 in the parking lot of an Arlington apartment complex.
Kendell Jerrell Morris, 22, of Houston, also has been charged with murder in the case. He was arrested on the afternoon of May 4 in Madisonville with an AR-15 rifle inside of his car just hours after the fatal shooting, police said.
Morris remained in the Tarrant County Jail on Thursday on $100,000 bond.
Morris and Jones are accused of driving from Houston to Arlington with the intention of killing an Arlington man, but Cooley was killed only because he looked like that man, according to police.
An arrest warrant written by Arlington Detective Julia Hall provided this account of the shooting:
Video surveillance showed that Jones and Morris were at a store in Edgebrook buying two 223 magazines the evening before the shooting.
Forensic testing in the case indicated that Jones was in contact with the weapons used to kill Cooley.
Morris and an Arlington man had engaged in “adversarial conversations” over the phone in May.
The warrant did not provide details on those conversations.
Morris had never met the man he intended to shoot, the warrant states.
Morris did not know what the Arlington man looked like, but he and Jones drove from Houston to kill him, according to the warrant. The only description Morris had was that he was a Black man with dreadlocks.
On the morning of May 4, witnesses reported seeing a white 2008 Nissan Altima parked in a space at an apartment complex on Bardin Greene Drive in Arlington. The car was later identified as being owned by Morris.
One witness lived with the Arlington man who Morris intended to shoot, according to the warrant, noting the Houston man was at the right apartment complex where his intended target lived.
At some point, the witness saw Cooley walking in the parking lot. As she opened the door to enter her apartment, the witness heard several gunshots.
She turned and saw Cooley lying in the parking lot, and the Nissan Altima was gone.
The warrant stated that the witness believed Morris had shot Cooley, but Arlington police said on Thursday that Jones and Morris are involved in the murder.
