Name: Jacob Ryan Evans
Victims: Jami Evans, 48, & Mallory Evans, 15
Age at time of murders: 17
Crime location: Aledo
Crime date: October 4, 2012
Weapon: .22 caliber revolver
Murder method: Gunshots
Murder motivation: Inspired by the Halloween film
Convictions: Guilty plea to murder
Sentence: 45 years
Incarceration status: Incarcerated at the Darrington location
Summary
Evans admittedly became interested in killing his family after he watched Rob Zombie’s remake of the movie Halloween, which has a boy who murders relatives. He devised a plan to kill several relatives, including his mother and sister. He shot them both to death with a gun he had stolen from his grandfather and then called the police to inform them of his actions. He also had also planned on killing his grandparents and two other sisters. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Details
Texas teen describes shooting family to 911 operator
October 5, 2012
ALEDO, Texas — A chilling recording of a 911 call captured a 17-year-old Texas boy telling the operator in a calm, monotone voice that he had just shot his mother and sister multiple times.
Jake Evans, 17, has been charged with capital murder in the deaths of his mother and 15-year-old sister and remained jailed Friday without bond.
The double slaying in the family’s upscale home in Aledo, about 20 miles west of Fort Worth, happened while Evans’ father was out of town on business and his two older sisters were not home. The motive remains “a big mystery,” Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler said Friday.
During a 25-minute call to a 911 operator that started about 12:30 a.m. Thursday, Evans calmly says he just shot his mother and sister with a .22 revolver. He answers “yes” when asked if he’s sure they are dead.
“It’s weird,” he says as the operator continues asking questions. “I wasn’t even really angry with them. It just kind of happened. I’ve been kind of planning on killing for a while now.”
He adds that he could have shot “pretty much anybody.” When asked why, he says first that he doesn’t know but then says he doesn’t like people’s attitudes.
Evans tells the Parker County 911 operator that his mother and sister were rude, but he also says his sister, Mallory, had a really sweet side.
“This is probably selfish of me to say, but to me, I felt like they were suffocating me in a way,” he says. “Obviously, you know, I’m pretty – I guess – evil.”
Evans describes shooting his mother several times and then, as his sister screams, shooting her in the head three times. He recalls apologizing to her and telling her to “hold still … that, you know, I was just going to just make it go away.”
Toward the end of the call but before deputies arrive at his house, Evans tells the operator that he’s “going to be messed up.” He says he’s worried about having nightmares and asks if there’s medication to treat that.
“I don’t mean to sound like a wimp or anything, but this is – wow. I’ve never done anything violent in my life, you know?” he says. Later, he’s heard taking deep breaths, as the operator has instructed. “I just thought it would be quick, you know? I didn’t want them to feel any pain. That’s why I used a gun, but it’s like everything just went wrong.”
Fowler said Evans was the only suspect in the deaths.
Evans and his sister Mallory were being home-schooled. Evans had played on the golf team before withdrawing from Aledo High School in January. He played football in middle school.
Mallory Evans “was a sweet child that will be missed by her friends and school family,” Aledo schools superintendent Doug Manning said in a statement.
Jami Evans, 48, was an elementary teacher and assistant principal for the Aledo school system for 15 years, and “her dedication to her students and her love of learning was an inspiration to all who knew her,” Manning said.
Parker County teen gets 45 years for killing mom, sister
By Deanna Boyd April 30, 2015
A teen who fatally shot his mother and 15-year-old sister inside their Parker County home was sentenced to 45 years in prison Thursday in a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Jacob Ryan “Jake” Evans, who was 17 at the time of the 2012 slayings, pleaded guilty to two counts of murder. As part of the plea, the state waived a capital murder charge.
Evans, who turns 20 in May, must serve at least half his sentence before becoming eligible for parole. He will be given credit for the 21/2 years he has been held in jail or in a state mental hospital while awaiting trial.
Evans had been ordered to a state mental hospital in October after he was ruled incompetent to stand trial. On Monday, a competency evaluation stating that Evans had been restored to competency was filed in court and Thursday’s plea hearing was scheduled.
Evans is a former Aledo High School student but was being home-schooled by his mother at the time of the slayings.
Mac Smith, Evans’ court-appointed attorney, read a letter at the hearing signed by several of Evans’ relatives. It said that although they would support a lesser sentence, 45 years is a “fair plea bargain under all circumstances.”
“None of us want Jake and our family to be subjected to a capital murder trial, which we feel would not be in his and our family’s best interest,” the letter says. “We wish to close this chapter of our lives in order to continue healing as a family.”
Prosecutor Robert DuBoise said the forgiveness shown by the family is inspiring, “with how quickly they forgave him and how wholly they embraced him. It’s just awe-inspiring to see that amount of love for this kid.”
THE CRIME
On Oct. 4, 2012, Evans called 911, telling a dispatcher, “Uh, I just killed my mom and my sister.”
“I felt like they were just suffocating me, in a way,” he said, according to a recording of the 911 call. “Obviously, you know, I’m pretty, I guess, evil.”
Parker County deputies found Jami Evans and daughter Mallory dead of multiple gunshot wounds inside the house, in the 150 block of River Creek Lane in Annetta South.
Evans was arrested at the scene.
In a written statement, he told investigators that he had devised a plan to kill several relatives after watching Rob Zombie’s remake of the movie Halloween, in which a boy murders relatives.
“While watching it I was amazed at how at ease the boy was during the murders and how little remorse he had afterward,” Evans wrote. “I was thinking to myself, it would be the same for me when I kill someone.”
Sheriff’s officials have said Evans used a gun stolen from his grandfather, a retired Fort Worth officer. Evans told investigators that he had intended to kill his grandparents and two other sisters later.
But after killing his mom and sister, Evans — in a state he described as “very shocked and scared” — instead placed the gun on the kitchen counter and called 911.
“I know now though that I’m done with killing. It’s the most dreadful and terrifying thing I will ever experience. And what happened last night will haunt me forever.”
DELAYS IN PROSECUTION
The capital murder case against Evans had been in legal limbo for some time.
The U.S. Supreme Court had already banned death sentences for defendants 17 and younger and later ruled that life without parole for defendants under 18 is also unconstitutional.
Those were the only Texas options for teens accused of capital murder.
Though the state Legislature has since tried to fix the issue, DuBoise said Thursday that “we weren’t sure whether that fix is going to hold up and stand constitutional scrutiny.”
Given that, along with the family’s wishes, Evans’ age and his lack of a criminal history, the plea agreement reached Thursday was the “best solution,” DuBoise said.
Smith declined to discuss what mental issues had reportedly afflicted Evans but called them “significant enough that he couldn’t stand trial.”
He expressed gratitude to Rusk State Hospital for restoring Evans’ competency, as well as to all of those involved in the case. He said the family is ready to continue healing.
“This is a horrible tragedy. When that happens, it’s just impossible to know how as a family you’re supposed to deal with it,” Smith said. “They have been working hard to deal with all the circumstances.”
Court of Appeals of Texas, Fort Worth.
August 22, 2013
Background Facts
In the first count of a December 2012 three-count indictment, a grand jury charged appellant with committing capital murder in October 2012 by intentionally or knowingly killing Jami Evans and Mallory Evans in the same criminal transaction.1 The other two counts of the indictment charged appellant with murdering Jami and Mallory individually. The trial court appointed counsel to represent appellant.
In January 2013, appellant filed an application for a writ of habeas corpus, alleging that his incarceration for the capital murder count of the indictment was unconstitutional because he was seventeen years old upon allegedly committing the offense2 and because two decisions by the United States Supreme Court had established that “neither of the two statutorily authorized punishments for this offense [could] be applied to him.”3 Appellant contended that under such circumstances, his continued detention, “and the continued restraint of [his] liberty in order to compel [him] to answer to such charge ․ [was] unlawful.” Thus, appellant urged the trial court to “immediately discharge[ ]” him from any further restraint under the capital murder allegation. Appellant also argued that the trial court had violated his constitutional and statutory rights by refusing to set a bond.
The trial court set a hearing on appellant’s application. In responding to the application and in urging the trial court to deny relief on part of it,4 the State principally contended that appellant was making pretrial as-applied challenges to the constitutionality of the Texas capital murder sentencing statutes and that such challenges were not cognizable through an application for a writ of habeas corpus.5 The State noted that appellant had not challenged the constitutionality of the penal code provision that defined capital murder and asserted, in part,
The state’s capital murder sentencing statutes are not keeping [appellant] in confinement or otherwise restraining his liberty. Rather, it is the fact he was indicted with an allegation of violating the capital murder statute which has caused the present “restraint” of his liberty. It is not until [appellant] is actually convicted of the offense of capital murder after a trial that it can be said those statutes are “restraining” [appellant’s] liberty interests.
In summary, the State argued that appellant’s challenges to the constitutionality of any sentence that he could receive under Texas’s capital murder sentencing statutes could be properly resolved only in the event of, and subsequent to, his conviction.
Appellant replied to the State’s response by reiterating that no Texas statute provided a constitutional punishment that could be applied to appellant in the event of his conviction. Although appellant recognized that as-applied constitutional challenges could not generally be litigated in pretrial habeas corpus applications, he contended that he was not bringing such a challenge because the unconstitutional application of the Texas capital murder sentencing statutes to him had already been clearly established by the Supreme Court’s precedent, which, according to appellant, affected the trial court’s power to proceed on the capital murder charge.
The trial court heard arguments from both parties at a brief hearing on the writ application. During the hearing, the State conceded that at the time of the hearing, there was no constitutional sentence for a seventeen-year-old person convicted of capital murder. The State explained, however, that a “lot of things could happen” regarding the sentencing statutes before the trial of the case, and the State specifically referred to a bill that was pending in the legislature that could “fix” the constitutional problem.
Appellant’s father, Darryl Evans, testified at the hearing that he did not intend to assist appellant in making a bond, that appellant did not have any assets to contribute to making a bond, and that appellant had not previously been convicted of a crime. The trial court, over appellant’s objection, admitted a written statement that appellant gave on the day of the offense. The statement, given in October 2012, included appellant’s acknowledgements that he had received Miranda6 warnings. In the statement, appellant wrote that after watching a movie, hitting golf balls, and thinking about how to kill his family, he shot Mallory (his sister) and Jami (his mother) multiple times.
The court denied relief on the majority of appellant’s habeas corpus application but set a bond of $750,000. Appellant brought this appeal.
