Dallas County Sheriff
Lavelle EvansDALLAS - A Dallas County jury convicted Lavelle Evans of capital murder this afternoon in the retaliation killing of a woman who was set to testify against him in a 2006 drug case.
The Dallas County District Attorney chose not to seek the death penalty. Evans, 30, of Arkansas received an automatic life sentence with no opportunity for parole.
Crystal Jenkins, a co-defendant in the drug case, had worked out a plea deal with prosecutors for agreeing to testify against Evans and his brother, Johnny Evans.
A few days before Jenkins, 25, was scheduled to testify, she was found fatally shot near White Rock Lake, about 260 miles from her hometown, El Dorado, Arkansas.
Defense attorney Richard Franklin told the jury that his client is innocent and was in Arkansas when the shooting happened. During closing arguments, Franklin said that there was no guarantee that Jenkins was going to testify against Evans.
"Crystal was still hanging out with Lavelle," Franklin said. " She was obviously not taking this very serious. Who knows if she was ever going to testify?"
A cell phone that police said belonged to Evans was tracked traveling from Arkansas to Dallas the morning of the shooting and then back again. But Franklin said there is no proof that his client was the one on the phone.
Prosecutor Marc Moffitt said during his closing arguments that this "phantom killer" the defense kept trying to suggest makes no sense.
"There was no way she was going to testify," Moffitt said. "He killed her."
