DALLAS — Dallas County prosecutors this week filed to dismiss six misdemeanor animal cruelty charges against the man who was accused of stealing monkeys from the Dallas Zoo just over one year ago.
Davion Irvin was arrested and charged in the January 2023 theft, but he was later found mentally incompetent to stand trial and ordered to a state hospital..
In court filings on Feb. 5, assistant district attorney Kristin Wade Wade wrote that Irvin "remains incompetent," and that he had already spent the maximum time allowed for punishment in the case in the county jail.
"Therefore the State must dismiss this case," Wade wrote.
Irvin remains in custody in a state hospital. Records list the two felony burglary charges for which he was indicted as "inactive."
Irvin was indicted in March 2023 in the breaking-in and theft of two monkeys from the Dallas Zoo. He was also implicated in separate incidents at the zoo involving a clouded leopard disappearing through a whole in its enclosure and a vulture dying of a suspicious wound.
In August, it was revealed that Irvin was found incompetent to stand trial.
The Texas Code of Criminal Procedure states a person is incompetent to stand trial if they don't have sufficient present ability to consult with their lawyer with a degree of rational understanding and a rational and factual understanding of the proceedings against them.
Upon being found incompetent, the code states that the state "may dismiss all charges pending against the defendant." The defendant may then either be released on bail or committed to a jail-based competency restoration program or a mental health facility.
A grand jury had indicted Irvin on two counts of burglary in the break-in and thefts of the monkeys in January 2023. Irvin also faced six misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty in the case, jail records showed.
On Jan. 31, 2023, the monkeys were found inside a closet at an abandoned building in Lancaster. A tipster alerted police to the possibility of monkeys being inside the building, which had been the subject of a previous investigation involving exotic animals being kept there.
The monkeys, named Bella and Finn, were found uninjured and were returned home to the zoo.
Two days later, Irvin was arrested after someone reported to police that he was at the Dallas World Aquarium, checking out the mesh enclosures there. Police had been wanting to speak with Irvin about the zoo incident after surveillance video showed him near where the monkeys disappeared.
Sources told WFAA that Irvin earlier in the month asked zoo employees questions about a clouded leopard that disappeared when its enclosure was intentionally cut cut. Around the same time, zookeepers also found a hole cut into the enclosure surrounding its langur monkey enclosure.
The langur monkeys didn't escape. The leopard was eventually found not far from its cage.
About a week after the leopard incident and a week before the tamarin monkey disappearance, a vulture was found dead with what appeared to be a stab wound and some fish and other items were believed to have been stolen from the zoo.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Irvin told police that he took the tamarin monkeys from the zoo and then onto a DART train as he fled the area.
Irvin told police at the time that he loves animals and that he would steal more if he was released from jail, the affidavit said.