Early Monday morning, Forth Worth police Sgt. Billy Randolph was helping to clear an accident scene on I-35 when he was struck and killed by a car heading the wrong way on the interstate. According to police, the driver tried to flee the scene, first in her car and then on foot, before she was apprehended.
25-year-old DeAujalae Evans was allegedly intoxicated when she was arrested, but that’s not the only reason she shouldn’t have been behind the wheel. Local police and politicians say Evans should have been behind bars serving time for a previous crime.
According to court documents, Evans shot another woman, who was identified as her romantic partner, in March of 2023. She was sentenced to 72 months of probation in April of this year after entering a guilty plea.
Some local officials and law enforcement leaders believe Evans shouldn’t have been released after committing a violent felony.
“This case is obviously very important to us because this is a brother of blue who passed senselessly, but we share the same story as so many other people in the community who have lost loved ones at the hands of someone who likely shouldn’t have been out of jail,” said Lake Worth Police Chief J.T. Manoushagian.
Manoushagian said he doesn’t want to be too critical of those serving in the district attorney’s office or the judge who made the decision, but it’s hard to understand how this happened
“If you are willing to shoot your domestic partner, as was alleged in this case, you have the propensity for violence and that should be considered,” Manoushagian said. “I don’t know why probation was even on the table for a crime like that.”
Tarrant County Commissioner Manny Ramirez, a former Fort Worth police officer, said Evans is solely to blame for her actions, but he hopes this opens a conversation about how these plea bargains are handled.
“This was domestic violence and an assault with a firearm, two of the greatest risk predictors for future violence,” Ramirez said. “And this person goes out there and kills one of our police officers. Just so happened to be one of our police officers, but it could have been any community member. It could have been anybody that was revictimized by this person. And so I think that it’s absolutely heartbreaking to know that that this person should have been behind bars.”
So why did Evans get probation instead of a prison sentence when aggravated assault with a deadly weapon is punishable by 2-to-20-years in the penitentiary under Texas law? The District Attorney in Tarrant County wouldn’t comment specifically on her case, but told CBS News that prosecutors “evaluate each case our office receives on a case-by-case basis,” adding “some factors we consider in making our decisions are the facts of the case, the available proof, witnesses, the criminal history of the defendant, and the wishes of the victim.”
The D.A. isn’t pinning the blame on the judge who handed down the probationary sentence, which suggests that the terms of the deal came from prosecutors, perhaps in consultation with Evans’ attorney as well. But the vague statement from the District Attorney doesn’t reveal anything what led prosecutors in this case to agree to Evans serving six years probation after shooting her romantic partner.
Did the victim in the domestic violence case refuse to testify? Were there serious evidentiary issues with the case? A boilerplate statement like the one issued by the Tarrant County D.A. simply isn’t good enough when we’re talking about a police officer who was allegedly struck and killed by someone just sentenced to probation for a violent felony less than six months ago.
Democrats in Texas are talking up the need for more gun control on the campaign trail, but Evans’ case demonstrates that the real problem is a lack of legal consequences for some violent offenders. If the sentencing guidelines had been followed, Evans would have been behind bars on Monday morning instead of allegedly being intoxicated behind the wheel of a car driving the wrong way on an interstate exit ramp… and Sgt. Billy Randolph would likely be alive and patrolling the streets of Fort Worth today.
