FORT WORTH, Texas — A 33-year-old North Texas man was sentenced to 60 years in prison for engaging in organized crime and murder, according to the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Phil Sorrells.
Sorrells said Jonathan Howard, a documented 5x2 Crips street gang member, and two other men waited for Quiton Murray to leave an Arlington night club. Murray was a rival gang member, Sorrells said, and was shot multiple times after parking his BMW near an east Fort Worth apartment complex.
WFAA reported Howard was wearing an ankle monitor at the time of the murder because of a previous charge for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Court documents said Murray and Howard had a confrontation at a club earlier in the night.
According to booking information, Howard had been arrested and released from jail five months before allegedly killing Murray. Then, five days after he was arrested for the murder, Howard bonded out again and was again wearing an ankle monitor.
“Anything can happen to me. You know, they may want to hurt my family even more,” Murray's mother, LaQuita Murray, said at the time. “To even consider and let them out. I feel it's a slap in the face.”
The Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office requested a $150,000 bond for Howard, but he was instead given a $10,000 bond.
“It is the state’s belief that the bond amount of $10,000 is not sufficient to balance the freedom of the accused verses the safety of the community,” an attorney in the DA’s office wrote in a motion at the time.
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