By Aria Jones
A man accused in the killing of another man during a fight at his Old East Dallas apartment complex was not charged with murder after a Dallas County grand jury declined to indict him.
Jarvis Urssing, 39,faced the charge after police alleged a fight led to the death of 47-year-old Thomas Williams. The grand jury decided not to indict Urssing in December,according to online Dallas County court records.
Police arrived at an apartment complex the morning of April 7, hours after 911 was called and found Williams beaten near the entrance, according to a police narrative. Williams died days later.
An autopsy was presented to the grand jury along with evidence in the case, Urssing’s defense attorney Julie Lesser told The Dallas Morning News.
“I don’t know what the grand jury took into consideration, but Mr. Urssing was very grateful to have his freedom back,”Lesser said.
Lesser said Urssing is a veteran with no criminal history. Williams also was a veteran, according to an online obituary. Both men could have been dealing with the trauma of their military service, Lesser said.
“These are people that served our country,” she said.
Urssing told police he did not know Williams, according to the police narrative.
Two people called 911 about 4:30 a.m. April 7 from an apartment complex in the 4900 block of Gaston Avenue, near North Collett Avenue, according to the document.
A resident said a suspicious person was banging on doors and screaming. The other caller was later identified as Urssing, the document says.
At about 7:25 a.m., two officers were sent to the apartment complex and found Williams lying in the bushes near an entrance gate. He had been beaten to the point that he “could not be revived,” according to the police narrative.
Williams had two swollen black eyes, a bloody nose and a head injury, the document says, and was taken to a hospital where doctors determined he had swelling of the brain. He was unable to communicate with investigators before he died.
According to the police narrative, Williams was involved in a disturbance with two people inside an apartment. One of those people told police they “forcibly removed” Williams from the apartment but that there was no violence involved.
Investigators said that after Williams left the apartment, he was believed to be intoxicated and causing a disturbance, according to police. The commotion led Urssing to exit his apartment and confront Williams near the gate, the police narrative said.
Urssing told officers that Williams tried to headbutt him and spit in his face, the narrative says, and that he was defending himself when he punched Williams in the face.
According to the document, Urssing said he dragged Williams outside of the gate and called 911. Urssing told police the only injury he saw on Williams was a bloody nose, and police said Urssing had multiple wounds on his left hand.
Lesser, Urssing’s defense attorney, said the grand jury did what she and Urssing considered to be “the right thing” with its decision not to indict Urssing, and pointed out that by the time police arrived, it had been hours since Urssing called 911.
“I’m a little confused how they decided that rather than making a grand jury referral, they went ahead and arrested my client even though there didn’t appear to be any direct evidence that he had even been the last person in contact with the complaining witness,” Lesser said.
Urssing was booked into the Dallas County jail on April 7 on an aggravated assault charge and that charge was upgraded to murder after Williams died on April 10.
On May 10,Urssing’s bail was reduced from $1 millionto $15,000, according to court records. He had lost his job and was released on bond with an electronic leg monitor, Lesser said, which was “very time-consuming and very invasive.”
According to court records, the Dallas County grand jury chose not to indict Urssing on Dec. 14.
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