Former tenant accused of murdering Dallas 49-year-old landlord
DALLAS - Dallas police arrested a man for the murder of his former 49-year-old landlord inside her Old East Dallas home earlier this month.
On July 6, officers found Sonya Warren’s body inside her home on Llano Avenue in the Lakewood Heights neighborhood while performing a welfare check.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Warren had been shot in the head, and her doorbell camera had been ripped off the wall.
A witness told investigators Warren had converted part of her home into an apartment and had been renting it out to 41-year-old Jeffrey Hinton until about a month ago.
Jeffery Hinton (Dallas PD)
Another witness told investigators they saw Hinton at Warren’s home on July 5. That witness reported seeing Hinton rip the doorbell camera off the wall, the affidavit states.
Additional video evidence showed Hinton’s blue Hyundai Elantra parked in Warren’s driveway on July 5 at the time two gunshots could be heard, according to the court document.
According to the arrest warrant, a witness told investigators a man matching Hinton’s description came back to the home just a few hours later in a blue sedan and "ripped the door camera out of the wall and left the location."
The witness also was able to write down the license plate.
Police interviewed Hinton, but he claimed he was only at his former landlord’s home for 10 minutes and denied taking her doorbell camera.
Police searching for suspects in Old East Dallas murder
The Dallas County Medical Examiner has identified a woman killed in a home near Lower Greenville in Old East Dallas.
According to the affidavit, police obtained a warrant for Hinton’s arrest on Friday after cellphone records revealed he had been in the area for about 40 minutes instead of 10. He was arrested the next day at a Plano senior living center where his mother lives.
Hinton is now charged with murder.
There’s no word on a motive for the crime.