Prosecutors played video in court showing the famous singer’s car being stolen. Evans was arrested months after the break-in.
ATLANTA — Kelvin Evans, the man charged Case involving the theft of unreleased music recorded by Beyoncé Members of her team pleaded guilty last year while she was on tour in Atlanta.
This preceded a jury trial in which Evans accepted a plea offer from prosecutors after rejecting the deal. He faced up to six years in prison in the case, but under a deal accepted by the judge, he was sentenced to just two years.
Evans will receive credit for time served following his arrest in September, but he has also previously violated parole and had six other car break-ins outlined in court on Tuesday, so it’s unclear how long he will currently have to serve.
Prosecutors played video of the parking lot burglary in court and said it would be used as evidence against them if the case went to trial. They said that while they believed their case was strong, there was also a “sense of uncertainty associated with a jury trial” in offering the deal and wanted some certainty.
“While we believe the state’s case is very strong, there are portions of it that are circumstantial and a reasonable jury might find the defendant not guilty, so that is the basis for the plea recommendation,” the prosecutor explained.
Evans, for his part, seemed annoyed at the plea at one point but eventually confirmed his plea. His lawyer said he was accepting responsibility and had a three-year-old daughter.
“He is looking forward to putting this all behind him and hopes that in the future he can earn money legally and become part of society like the rest of us,” the defense lawyer said.
Ultimately, he pleaded guilty to one count of entering a vehicle, for which he was sentenced to five years in prison (two years in prison, three years suspended), and the second count of the indictment, criminal trespass, was merged into the first count. He was sentenced as a repeat offender and is not eligible for parole.
The incident occurred in July last year and he was arrested a few months later.
The theft occurred in a July 8th parking lottwo days before the Atlanta stop of her first “Cowboy Carter” tour. Two people claiming to be members of Beyoncé’s crew reported that two suitcases were missing from their black Jeep in the parking lot. Police also said the pair discovered the rear window had been broken.
Stolen items included jump drives with unreleased Beyoncé music, footage plans for the show, past and future gig listings, two laptops, designer sunglasses and Apple AirPods Max headphones, according to the incident report.
A search warrant obtained by 11Alive says Atlanta police received screenshots of the location of stolen items after a theft last year. The projects pinged at three locations: one on Hank Aaron Drive in Longgreen Terrace and another on North Avenue in Hapeville.
According to the search warrant, a crime analyst was able to review surveillance cameras and locate the vehicle used in the theft by its license plate. Video from those cameras was played in court Tuesday, with prosecutors pointing out the location of the car’s tag in the video.
Police tracked the vehicle and conducted a traffic stop on the driver, who was Evans’ niece. Prosecutors explained that she lent him the car, expecting it to disappear for a few minutes, and when he drove onto Krog Street, he parked next to the Jeep used by Beyoncé’s team and saw the items inside, including a black suitcase containing her unreleased music and other material, before eventually driving them away.
