‘It has ruined us as a whole,’ says Arlington mom awaiting trial in son’s 2018 slaying
Jill Thompson barely sleeps these days.
It comes from the emptiness she experiences every day, especially on birthdays and holidays when her son Drew Jones isn’t around. And it’s been that way for four years since Jones, 25, was killed in a fight that authorities say began over a water bottle at an Arlington apartment complex.
A Grand Prairie man has been arrested in the case, but that murder trial is still pending. It’s scheduled for Oct. 3 in Criminal District Court No. 2 in Fort Worth, but Thompson is apprehensive.
Since his arrest in the Arlington homicide, Darian Watts has violated his release on bond in the Jones murder case and he has been arrested on two other crimes in Denton County.
Watts remained free this week, awaiting his trials in the murder case in Tarrant County and aggravated robbery and burglary charges in Denton County.
“It takes my breath away,” Thompson, of Fort Worth, said in an email to the Star-Telegram as she and her family await the murder trial. “I think how is he so lucky and especially going and committing crimes when we struggle day to day.”
Thompson said her family remains very close.
“We are all so saddened by his death, words can’t explain it,” Thompson said.
Her other son wished that Drew would come to him in his dreams.
“The thing you look forward to is you know he is not coming back but you know that you are getting older and we will join him one day,” his mother said. “Our health has declined and you cry.”
A kicked-over water bottle led to a fight that ended with Drew Jones’ death in April 2018, according to Arlington police.
Police officers responded to a disturbance call on a night in April 2018 in the 1700 block of West Randol Mill Road. When officers arrived they saw Jones lying in the parking lot with a stab wound, police said. He was taken a hospital, where he was pronounced dead the next day.
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 at the time.
“These group of people called Drew names,” Thompson said in a 2019 telephone interview with the Star-Telegram. “They wanted to fight, but Drew didn’t do anything.”
On that night in April 2018, Drew Jones and his brother 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 police arrived.
Watts was arrested shortly after the attack and charged with murder in December 2018.
Watts was released on $25,000 bond, but a warrant was issued for him in April 2019 on a bond violation.
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.
In 2020, Watts was arrested again and accused of being one of two robbers who broke into a Denton apartment, stealing electronics and credit cards.
Jill Thompson and her family were shocked Watts continued to be arrested in different cases.
“It has ruined us as a whole,” Thompson said. “Some people tell you that he (Drew) is in a better place and you think to yourself, ’Did someone take your kid?’”
This story was originally published September 15, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
