North Texas resident gets 5 years in prison for fatally stabbing man over water bottle
A young Grand Prairie man who killed another man during a fight that started over a water bottle in 2018 has been sentenced to five years in prison.
In an agreement reached with prosecutors, Darian Watts, 23, pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter in the death of Drew Jones, 25, at an Arlington apartment complex.
Watts was indicted on a murder charge in 2018 but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge on Sept. 29.
“I mean five years for a life,” said Jill Thompson of Fort Worth, Jones’ mother, in an email to the Star-Telegram. “If he was so innocent, why did he run?”
A kicked-over water bottle led to a fight that ended with Jones’ death in April 2018, according to Arlington police.
Police officers responded to a disturbance call 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.
“This 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 went to the apartment complex on West Randol Mill Road to visit friends. The other 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
At Watts’ sentencing last month, Jones’ sister gave the impact statement.
“As I walked in the courtroom, it was so overwhelming,” Jill Thompson said. “I was sobbing and they had to get me water and I started hyperventilating.”
Thompson noted that Watts remained a problem to law enforcement even after the 2018 killing of her son.
Since his arrest in the Arlington homicide, Watts has violated the terms of his release on bond and has been arrested in two other crimes in Denton County, according to court records.
In 2020, Watts was arrested and accused of being one of two robbers who broke into a Denton apartment, stealing electronics and credit cards.
Watts faces charges of aggravated robbery and burglary in Denton County, according to criminal court records.
