Woman Who Fatally Ran Over Man Previously Dated Him: Prosecution

JOLIET, IL — Will County Judge Fred Harvey rejected arguments on Wednesday on a request to release Joliet first-degree murder defendant D'Kiva Jones from custody. The 28-year-old Crest Hill woman has stayed in Will County's Jail since Joliet police arrested her on March 23, 2022, accusing her of using her sports utility vehicle to kill Derek Walsh in a Plainfield Road parking lot.

Utilizing the SAFE-T Act, Jones and her criminal defense counsel, Chuck Bretz, petitioned Will County's Courtroom 401 of Judge Harvey to release her from detention.

The Will County State's Attorney's Office of Jim Glasgow strongly opposed efforts by the defense to release Jones, who is 28 years old. Judge Harvey agreed with the prosecution and ordered Jones to remain in custody while she continues to await her murder trial.

Prosecutors filed a lengthy petition to deny pre-trial release for Jones, noting that she is charged with first-degree murder, failure to report an accident, aggravated battery and failure to stop after having an accident involving a personal injury or death.

According to the Will County State's Attorney's Office:

• Jones had a passenger inside her SUV when she ran over Walsh that Monday afternoon on March 21, 2022. "The defendant put the car into drive and drove into the victim, trying to intimidate the victim. The male passenger tried to plead with the defendant to stop and calm down. The defendant continued to drive into the victim and ran the victim over and drove away from the scene."
• After running over Walsh, leaving him to die, the Crest Hill woman went to the Portillo's in Joliet to order food, and she returned to her male passenger's house where Joliet police found them.
• Jones' passenger told Joliet police that Jones and Walsh had a dating relationship for a few months, and both had issues of sleeping with other people.
• "The male passenger believed the defendant randomly saw the victim on the road and did not know of any communication between the two on the date of the incident."
• At the time of her arrest, Jones told Joliet police that she was driving her green Ford Escape in the 1100 block of Plainfield Road. She and Walsh had "hooked up several times in the past, and the victim threatened her in the past."
• She claimed Walsh had been threatening to harm her during text messages between her and Walsh. However, Joliet police recovered all the text messages between them since the summer of 2021 and "no evidence of threats by text message on the part of the victim was found on the defendant's phone or the victim's phone."

Jones also told Joliet detectives, "no threats took place on the date of the incident."

"The defendant did not really know the victim but knew him as 'D' or 'White Jesus,'" court records show. "The defendant said she was responsible for running the victim over, and she was driving her vehicle in the parking lot. She said the victim was threatening her and had a knife up around his neck area ... The defendant claimed she accelerated and ran the victim over trying to get away ... she said she was not planning on calling the police."

Will County prosecutors also noted that just three months before Walsh lost his life, Walsh was located near the Joliet Police Station and an officer noticed Jones' SUV partially on the sidewalk.

According to the prosecution's petition, Jones told an officer she had followed her boyfriend because she caught him with another unidentified female.

Joliet police talked with Walsh at the scene.

"He said the defendant was his girlfriend and had attempted to run him over outside the police department," court documents indicate. "However, Walsh did not want to talk anymore about the incident and wanted nothing done as he just wanted to leave. The officer told the defendant to wait while Walsh drove away."

Three months later, on the afternoon of March 21, 2022, Joliet police obtained video surveillance from the parking lot at 1113 Plainfield Road, near the Supermercado Las Palmas grocery store.

Court records indicate that video showed Walsh's motorcycle hit by Jones' vehicle. An officer found Walsh bleeding from his eyes, mouth, ears and nose. He was unresponsive and had shallow breathing. He died at St. Joe's hospital several minutes later.

Back in the summer of 2013, Joliet Patch reported that Walsh, then 30 years old, was arrested by Joliet police on charges of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child.

Joliet police said at the time that investigators began looking into Walsh after receiving two unrelated reports from parents alleging he had had sexual contact with their daughters that April. Walsh's criminal case was still awaiting trial at the time of his homicide.

Related Patch coverage:

Man Sexually Assaulted 2 Young Girls, Joliet Police Say

Joliet Murder Defendant D'Kiva Jones Hires Joliet Attorney

Joliet Murder Charge Filed In Derek Walsh's Death