Man accused of stealing monkeys from Dallas Zoo found incompetent to stand trial
The man accused by police of stealing monkeys from the Dallas Zoo in January and February has been found incompetent to stand trial, according to Dallas County court records. Instead, he was sent to a state hospital for mental health care.
Davion Irvin, 24, was arrested in February and charged with six counts of animal cruelty in the case involving two emperor tamarin monkeys, along with two charges of burglary of a building in connection to the cases of the zoo’s missing clouded leopard and the tamarin monkeys.
Nova, one of the zoo’s clouded leopards, disappeared about three weeks before Irvin’s arrest, after her cage was cut open. The leopard was eventually found on the zoo grounds and returned to her enclosure.
A similar cut was found in the langur monkeys’ enclosure after Nova escaped and was later found. None of the langur monkeys escaped or were harmed.
Irvin told investigators at the time that he stole the tamarin monkeys and tried to steal other animals from the zoo because he loves animals, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
But Irvin won’t be facing trial after court documents indicate a court-ordered psychiatrist found him incompetent last month to stand trial.