Murder Suspect Freed From Jail While City Determines if Evidence Was Lost in His Case

Jonathan Pitts walked out of the Frank Crowley Courts Building with an ankle monitor

By Krista M. Torralva / The Dallas Morning News • Published August 16, 2021 • Updated on August 16, 2021 at 10:57 pm

Jonathan Pitts walks off the escalator after visiting the pre-trial services office on Monday, Aug. 16, 2021, at the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Dallas. Pitts, a murder suspect scheduled to go on trial this week, was released from Dallas County jail after it was revealed that the city may have lost evidence in his case. — Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News

A man who is waiting to stand trial in a murder case was released from the Dallas County jail Monday after a Dallas city data snafu caused a massive deletion of police evidence.

Jonathan Pitts walked out of the Frank Crowley Courts Building with an ankle monitor about 2:15 p.m. without being required to pay bond. He lifted his suit coat to shield his face as he ignored questions from Dallas Morning News journalists.

Pitts’ trial in the case of a January 2019 homicide in northwest Dallas was supposed to start last Thursday, but prosecutors said they needed more time to make sure evidence in his case wasn’t among the eight terabytes of data that was lost when a Dallas city IT employee incorrectly transferred police evidence from a cloud system to the city’s server.

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