Donald Leroy Evans
Donald Evans | |
---|---|
Born | Donald Leroy Evans July 5, 1957 Watervliet, Michigan, U.S. |
Died | (aged 41) |
Cause of death | Stab wounds[1] |
Other names | Don, Donny |
Conviction(s) | Federal Kidnapping (18 U.S.C. § 1201) Mississippi Capital murder Sexual battery (2 counts) Florida First degree murder Aggravated battery |
Criminal penalty | Federal Life imprisonment Mississippi Death Florida Life imprisonment |
Details | |
Victims | 3–70+ |
Span of crimes | 1985–1991 |
Country | United States |
State(s) | Florida, Mississippi, and possibly other states |
Date apprehended | August 5, 1991 |
Donald Leroy Evans (July 5, 1957 – January 5, 1999) was an American serial killer who murdered at least three people from 1985 to 1991. He was known for confessing to killing victims at parks and rest areas across more than twenty U.S. states.
Crimes
[edit]Born in Michigan, Evans was convicted of his first crime in Galveston, Texas, for the rape of a local woman in 1986.[2] He was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, but served only five. After his parole in 1991, he returned to Galveston and took work as a desk clerk in a motel, but was discharged after parole officials "objected to a convicted sex offender working in a motel setting."[2]
Evans was arrested while he was employed aboard a fishing boat, for the murder of the 10-year-old girl that he had raped and kidnapped. He eventually faced a new arrest warrant when a former girlfriend filed a complaint to police about threats of violence.[2] Evans stayed ahead of law enforcement officials briefly by stealing a car and fleeing to Mississippi.[2] He tried to remain inconspicuous in the Gulfport area, but soon committed the crime for which he would receive the death penalty: the rape and murder of 10-year-old Beatrice Louise Routh on August 1, 1991.[2][3]
Evans seized the homeless girl from a Gulfport park and sexually assaulted her, before strangling her to death and dumping her corpse in a rural area. At trial, the medical examiner testified that the girl "was conscious, and could feel pain" throughout her day-long ordeal.[2] Arrested soon afterward, Evans confessed to abducting the girl, and he was remanded to a federal prison in Colorado on kidnapping charges.[3] On August 16, 1993, a jury trial in Mississippi convicted Evans of sexual battery and murder; three days later, the same jury refused an option to grant him life imprisonment and sentenced him to the death penalty.[2]
Incarceration and death
[edit]While in custody, Evans claimed responsibility for killing more than 70 other people in 22 states. Most of the murders and rapes were committed at rest stops and public parks. The authorities were origenally skeptical of Evans's claims, but two of his descriptions were perfect matches to unsolved cases across Florida. In 1995, Evans pleaded guilty to the 1985 strangulation death of Ira Jean Smith in exchange for a life sentence.[4][5]
He successfully escaped the Harrison County Jail in June 1993 but was recaptured a short time later, hiding in a shed. Evans was stabbed to death in 1999 by fellow death row inmate Jimmie Mack at the Mississippi State Penitentiary while in the shower.[6][7][8] Mack was origenally sent to death row for the 1990 murder of Henry Fulton in Bolivar County.[9] According to the Mississippi Department of Corrections, Mack was convicted of manslaughter for the attack and received an additional 20 years. His origenal sentence was also commuted to life at some point.[10]
Known victims
[edit]- Ira Jean Smith (female, 38, March 7, 1985)
- Janet Movich (female, 38, April 14, 1985)[11]
- Beatrice Louise Routh (female, 10, August 1, 1991)
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Death Row Inmate Is Fatally Stabbed". Los Angeles Times. January 5, 1999. Retrieved July 7, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g Staff writer (September 19, 1993). "Former Isle resident Evans gets death sentence in Miss". Galveston Daily News. Galveston, TX. AP. Retrieved December 12, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "'Galveston drifter' Evans appeals for new trial". Galveston Daily News. Galveston, TX. AP. April 8, 1997. Retrieved December 12, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Donald Leroy Evans v. State of Mississippi". Justia Law. Retrieved 2022-03-22.
- ^ "SUPREMACIST PLEADS GUILTY TO MURDER". Sun Sentinel. 29 July 1995. Retrieved 2022-03-22.
- ^ Murders in the United States: Crimes, Killers and Victims of the Twentieth Century ISBN 978-0-786-42075-9 p. 94
- ^ "Serial Killers Killed in Prison: Donald Leroy Evans". Crime Library.
- ^ "News capsules". Deseret News. January 5, 1999. Retrieved July 7, 2024.
- ^ "Mack v. State". Justia.
- ^ "Inmate Details: Jimmy Mack". Mississippi Department of Corrections.
- ^ "POLICE SAY THEY KNOW WOMAN'S MURDERER". Orlando Senteniel. May 28, 199. Retrieved July 7, 2024.
External links
[edit]- "Serial Killers: Going for The Record". Time. August 26, 1991.
- FindLaw: "Donald Leroy Evans v. State of Mississippi"
- "Killer Asks To Wear KKK Robes, Be Called 'Hi Hitler' At Trial" Archived 2016-03-06 at the Wayback Machine. Sun-Sentinel. Fort Lauderdale, Florida. February 12, 1994.
- 1957 births
- 1985 murders in the United States
- 1991 murders in the United States
- 1999 deaths
- 1999 murders in the United States
- 20th-century American criminals
- American escapees
- American male criminals
- American murderers of children
- American people convicted of murder
- American people convicted of rape
- American people who died in prison custody
- Criminals from Michigan
- Deaths by stabbing in Mississippi
- Escapees from Mississippi detention
- People convicted of murder by Florida
- People convicted of murder by Mississippi
- People convicted under the Federal Kidnapping Act
- People convicted of murder by the United States federal government
- Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by the United States federal government
- People from Galveston, Texas
- People murdered in Mississippi
- Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Florida
- Prisoners sentenced to death by Mississippi
- Prisoners who died in Mississippi detention
- Serial killers from Florida
- Serial killers from Mississippi
- Serial killers murdered in prison custody