APD Makes Arrest in Murder of Evan Lacey - Report #2020-00030841
Published on May 27, 2025
By Arlington Police Department
The Arlington Police Department has made an arrest in connection to the December 2019 shooting death of Evan Lacey.
Following a complex and thorough investigation, APD Homicide Detectives obtained a warrant for the arrest of 22-year-old Darnell Jones II on one count of Murder. On Sunday, May 25, 2025, with the assistance of Chicago PD, Mr. Jones was located in Chicago, Illinois and taken into custody without incident.
Mr. Lacey was last seen by his family on the morning of December 17, 2019, when he left his home in Arlington. On December 21, 2019, Fort Worth Police found Mr. Lacey’s car abandoned in their city with an extensive amount of blood inside. Then, on January 3, 2020, a utility crew working in the 7100 block of Webb Ferrell Road discovered Mr. Lacey’s body dumped in a wooded area. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office determined his death was caused by a gunshot wound to the head.
Detectives at the time reviewed cell phone records, which showed that two calls were placed between Mr. Lacey’s phone and another phone number the day he went missing. The number was later linked to Mr. Jones. Cell phone records also showed that the two phones were consistently together from December 17-18 at a location approximately 1.3 miles from where Mr. Lacey’s body was discovered.
Additionally, following heavy media coverage of the murder, detectives received multiple tips indicating that Mr. Jones may have been involved.
Multiple DNA samples collected from the car were sent to a lab for testing. The results showed a mixture of DNA from Mr. Lacey and an unknown male. Although detectives had also obtained a DNA swab from Mr. Jones, who was a person of interest, labs at the time indicated the profile for the unknown male was not developed enough for comparison.
Homicide Detectives regularly speak to crime labs to learn about new advancements in forensic technologies and determine whether they could potentially help solve cases. In March 2025, detectives met with a lab that believed it could separate out the DNA mixture from the samples in this case and provide a profile for the unknown male that would be sufficient for comparison.
In April 2025, the lab isolated a profile from the car samples that was a match to Mr. Jones.
“Our detectives hit many roadblocks throughout this investigation, but they never gave up,” said Chief of Police Al Jones. “I’m proud of the outstanding police work they did and the proactive measures they took to identify the new technologies that ultimately helped us solve this case. It’s my hope that this news provides Mr. Lacey’s family with some relief and some semblance of closure that I know they’ve desperately waited for.”
Mr. Jones now awaits extradition to Tarrant County. He has declined to speak to detectives.