Waco man charged with capital murder headed back to jail after violating conditions of release

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - A 20-year-old capital murder defendant is heading back to jail after a judge increased his bail Monday for violations of his conditions of release.

Judge Susan Kelly of Waco’s 54th State District Court found Daezion Watkins’ $100,000 bond insufficient and increased it to $1 million after a hearing Monday.

Kelly drew criticism last year from state prosecutors and the victim’s father when she reduced Watkins’ $750,000 bond to $100,000 after the state failed to produce any evidence or witnesses at a February 2021 bond reduction hearing. Watkins was able to post bond a month later and was ordered to wear a GPS ankle monitor.

Watkins and Elijah Jamal Cravens are charged with capital murder in the September 10, 2019, robbery and shooting death of Aquarius Tyrone McPhaul, whose body was found in the street in the 2900 block of South Fourth Street near Oakwood Cemetery. He was shot at least 10 times, officials have said.

Prosecutor Anthony Smith sought to revoke or increase Watkins’ bail after multiple violation reports from Recovery Healthcare, the company that monitors the GPS tracking device Watkins is wearing.

Ronnie Marroquin of Recovery Healthcare testified that Watkins allowed the battery of his GPS device to die at least three times in March, meaning authorities were not able to track his whereabouts for a total of 21 hours. Watkins also ventured multiple times into what Marroquin called “exclusion zones,” areas where the victim’s family or witnesses live or work that are off-limits to Watkins.

Marroquin said there are 63 exclusion zones listed in Watkins’ conditions of release, adding he has never seen a defendant with that many areas he is forbidden to go.

Watkins’ attorney, Jessi Freud, argued that there was one potential witness listed in the bond revocation motion that the state alleged Watkins talked to or tried to talk to and said the state failed to prove the claim.

She told the judge that there are not exclusion zones listed on Watkins’ bond conditions and said she has been unable to get the addresses from the district attorney’s office for the 67 individuals listed with whom he is to have no contact. She said the potential witness listed in the motion to revoke does not live where prosecutors said he was and did not live there at the time of the offense. She questioned how Watkins could know where he wasn’t supposed to go without more specific direction.

Smith countered the DA’s office has not disclosed the addresses to the defense for safety concerns. He asked Marroquin if Watkins could have been unaware that he was violating an exclusion zone. Marroquin said it was not likely because the ankle monitor will start to vibrate and continue to do so while he is in the forbidden area and that a red light also will come on.

In other testimony, Watkins’ mother, Kendra Watkins, testified that she doesn’t want her son living with her anymore, despite the judge’s order that he live with her as a condition of bond.

“I love my son very, very much, but it has been very difficult for him to be living here,” she said.

When asked by Smith if she was “living in fear,” she said, “sometimes.”

Smith told the judge “when you have a mother with those concerns, I think the court should be concerned.”

First Assistant District Attorney Sharon Pruitt testified that Watkins’ bond should be revoked because he can’t find a stable place to live and can’t stop “making threats of violence against others.”

Freud told the judge the state did not prove the allegations in the motion and said the whole issue boils down to one accidental violation.

“I don’t know how a prosecutor can come in here with a straight face and think they have proved this violation,” Freud said.

Waco police have said Craven tried to rob McPhaul, a 17-year-old McLennan County Challenge Academy student, because McPhaul had been kicked out of a local gang because he could not repay the gang for drugs he reportedly used instead of selling.

According to an arrest affidavit, Watkins was a passenger in a stolen pickup when Craven picked up McPhaul from a motel. Watkins “handed Elijah Craven the handgun used in both the aggravated robbery and later the murder …” the affidavit states.

Watkins also was ordered on his bond conditions to have no contact with members of the Taliban criminal street gang, the 200 criminal street gang, the S.O.N. criminal street gang, the Hip Out criminal street gang and the T.S. O criminal street gang.

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