Fort Worth police arrest DWI murder suspect

A Fort Worth man was charged with murder Tuesday in connection with a drunken-driving accident in September, police said.

Leonardo Oviedo, 29, remained in the Mansfield Jail on Tuesday with bail set at $150,000. He was charged with DWI-felony repetition after rear-ending a car in the 3100 block of the South Freeway in Fort Worth on Sept. 27, said Sgt. Steven Enright, a police spokesman. Oviedo has two prior DWI convictions.

Oviedo, who was driving a white truck, fled but was arrested later that day.

A passenger in the car that was rear-ended, Margaret Williams of St. Louis, died Sept. 30 of complications from blunt force trauma to the chest, according to the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office.

A murder warrant was issued for Oviedo on Oct. 22, and fugitive officers arrested him Monday at a home in Fort Worth, Enright said.

He had been out of jail on bond following the DWI arrest, though his bond was ruled insufficient Oct. 13 when he failed to appear in court, according to district clerk records.

Oviedo’s initial Tarrant County court appearance for the murder charge is scheduled for Nov. 18.

Before the September accident, Oviedo had been convicted of seven offenses in Tarrant County, including felonies for cruelty to animals in 2003, theft of a vehicle of $1,500-$20,000 in 2008 and injury to an elderly person in 2011, according to court records.

He was sentenced to six years in state prison for the 2011 felony conviction and was released on supervision in 2013, said Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Oviedo was also sentenced to 30 days each for DWI convictions in 2008 and 2011.

This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 3:18 PM with the headline "Fort Worth police arrest DWI murder suspect."