Flowers and candles line the steps outside the back door of the Chipotle on Woodward in downtown Detroit, where Jaquoya Wix was fatally stabbed Sunday afternoon.
Devon Jason Watson, 42, was arraigned in 36th District Court and is being held without bond in connection with the killing. He faces a charge of first-degree, premeditated murder — despite prosecutors acknowledging the attack was random and that Wix and Watson were strangers.
Wix, 34, was on her break when Watson allegedly stabbed her multiple times in the alley behind the Chipotle in downtown Detroit.
Court records show Watson was released from a psychiatric hospital less than two months before the stabbing.
Gail Marlow, founder of Motor City Mitten Mission, a homeless outreach organization, said she first met Watson during COVID and saw him regularly on the streets of downtown Detroit and Corktown. She said interactions were brief and he always declined help for housing and resources. She knew him as both Devon and Jason, and said he would introduce himself using both names.
"He was quiet, he never, other than asking for food and a cigarette or a blanket, there really wasn't much conversation there," Marlow said.
Marlow said she and her team could sense Watson struggled with mental health, but nothing in his behavior signaled he was a danger.
"We knew that there was mental health issues there, but nothing that was showing he was a danger to us or anyone else that would cause us to contact a crisis center or DPD or anything like that," Marlow said.
One encounter from 4 or 5 years ago in Corktown has stayed with Marlow. She spotted Watson alone along the side of the road and took a photo of him, as he was lying in the grass with his hands raised toward the sky.
"That one photo, it's always stood in my mind because it's kind of like the essence of homelessness and mental health issues I think," Marlow said.
This past July, Watson was petitioned by police for his mental health and hospitalized after allegedly acting out in a coffee shop. He was then released — less than two months before the alleged stabbing.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said mental health does not eliminate criminal responsibility.
"Just because someone may have, may have, mental health issues, does not mean they are not responsible for their actions," Worthy said.
Marlow and her team said they feel heartbreak for Wix's family, but also feel frustration — pointing to what she sees as a systemic failure in follow-up care for people experiencing homelessness who are discharged from psychiatric facilities.
"The follow-up care is what I think is really lacking in situations where people are really homeless and don't have anywhere to go once they're released from psychiatric care," Marlow said.
"To know that he was discharged, where was he discharged to? I have so many questions about it," Marlow said.
Watson is due back in court on September 30.
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