Woman who allegedly tied up victims in Dallas slaying arrested in New Mexico, DPD says

A 28-year-old North Carolina woman was arrested Tuesday in New Mexico in connection with a southern Dallas shooting that left one man dead and a woman wounded after the victims were tied up.

Kayla Griffin was taken into custody in Bloomfield, Dallas police said. Bloomfield is about 800 miles west of Dallas, in the northwestern corner of New Mexico.

She will face a charge of capital murder and is being held in the state. It’s not clear if she has an attorney.

Court records show a warrant for her arrest was issued Tuesday. Despite using the alias “Jackie,” Griffin was identified as a suspect, police wrote in an affidavit, after investigators matched a physical description, including a unique tattoo, from witnesses to photos from a previous arrest in North Carolina.

About 11 a.m. Saturday, officers responded to the 900 block of Medalist Drive near South Polk Street in the Red Bird neighborhood, police said. They found a woman with a gunshot wound searching for help.

Officers then went inside a home in the area and found two men who had been tied up. Deleon Williams, 30, died at the scene and the second man was uninjured, according to police.

The woman was taken to the hospital for injuries that appeared to be non-life-threatening, police said. According to an arrest-warrant affidavit, the injured woman told officers that she and the two other men were robbed and shot by a female and male suspect.

Inside a bedroom of the home, police found the uninjured man and Williams, who was bound by extension cords and had his mouth covered with tape, the affidavit said. The man told detectives that he rented a room in the house a little over a month ago to a woman that he knows as “Jackie.”

On the day of the shooting, the man said Jackie arrived at the home with an unidentified male, according to the affidavit. The affidavit mentions a male suspect, but police haven’t commented about him publicly.

The male victim said Williams and the female victim were in his bedroom with him when ”Jackie” entered with the male suspect, who pointed a pistol at them.

”Jackie” then tied all three victims’ hands together with electrical cords and placed packing tape over Williams’ mouth, police wrote in the affidavit. She took all the victims’ cellphones and demanded the uninjured man’s debit card, pin number and the keys to his SUV.

Police write in the affidavit that the male suspect then fatally shot Williams, shot the woman in the back and shot at the other man as he rolled off the bed. The male suspect and ”Jackie” then fled the scene.

The uninjured man told police ”Jackie” had tattoos on her hands and a tattoo on the left side of her face that reads “Spook,” the affidavit said. Police were also able to get a photo of her from a witness at the crime scene.

In their investigation, detectives found a North Carolina booking photo for Griffin, which showed the “Spook” tattoo on her face, the affidavit said. The uninjured male victim also positively identified Griffin as the person he knows as “Jackie” from a photograph.

Online records from the North Carolina Department of Corrections show Griffin has faced multiple felony charges since 2012, including larceny. She served a prison sentence beginning in 2021 but was released in January 2022.

The DOC lists her as a fugitive and asked for information on her whereabouts, according to their website.

No additional information was immediately available on the identity of the other potential suspect.