USU football player charged with 2 felonies has prior drug charge

Jamaal Evans, a Utah State University player who was charged with two first-degree sex-crime felonies Thursday, has a prior conviction for possessing marijuana in February and was on probation, according to court records.

He was charged for possession of a controlled substance, a class B misdemeanor, in the 1st District Court, and plead guilty in March. He has a plea in abeyance agreement for the charge and the tracking review date for the agreement is March 7, 2019, according to court documents. 

Evans was charged with first-degree rape and first-degree forcible sodomy, both felonies, after a woman said she was raped at at an off-campus party the night of June 17 and the early morning of June 18.

That same day, the Logan Police Department responded to a call from the Cache Valley Hospital after a patient receiving a sexual-assault exam asked the hospital to call police.

The woman was interviewed by police on June 18 and said she began drinking vodka with a friend at the party, according to the affidavit of probable cause police report.

The report stated the next thing the woman remembered was waking up in the shower when she struck her head on a metal rack hanging over the shower head, and she said she remembered hearing Evans ask her if she “was good.” The report states that her last memory is waking up in her friend’s bed the next morning at their residence.

The next day, an interview with the woman’s friend was conducted, in which she gave her account of the night’s events.

The report states that the friend said she became concerned when Evans and the woman did not return to the basement after the woman had left with Evans to go upstairs to the kitchen. Three other party guests helped the friend search for the woman and Evans. The report said the group searched outside the house but didn’t search the bedrooms because they thought residents of the house were sleeping in them. The report continues, saying the friend then sent text messages to the woman that were left unanswered and after she found the woman’s phone unattended in the basement, she began texting Evans.

According to the report, Evans didn’t respond to the friends text message initially but then sent a text back saying “hold up” and “we good.”

The report continues saying the friend then heard a shower turn on upstairs and went upstairs to discover one of the bedroom doors now open with a light on. The friend observed vomit all over the bed, the floor and Evans shirt. The friend then attempted to enter the bathroom nearby but the door was locked, and the report states Evans was telling the friend through the door that “she did not need to be there and that they were okay.”

The friend, in an attempt to trick Evans into opening the door, told him she would be going back downstairs, but she then waited by the door. Evans opened the door and “peeked his head out the door as if to see if she was still there,” the report states, and the friend said she then forced her way into the bathroom.

“(The friend) stated she found (the woman) sitting on the toilet completely nude,” the report stated, and “(the friend) described (the woman) as being completely hunched over and as ‘completely incoherent.’”

The friend “began questioning (the woman) about what had occurred between she and Evans,” the report continued, and “the friend stated that (the woman) began tearing up and and telling her she did not know what was happening.”

The friend said she then went to question Evans about what had happened between the woman and him and the friend stated “Evans further described what occurred as ‘when you’re in the moment and you want what you want, you just got to do it sometimes.’” The friend continued saying Evans told her that “(the woman was sober and that ‘he gave that girl what she wanted.’”  

In a later recorded phone call conversation with Evans and the woman, the woman “accuses him of rape to which he responds that she needs to trust him because he is the only person who was there and knows what happened,” the affidavit stated.

In the police affidavit, the officer interviewed several of the party goers and they all said the woman was “obviously” too intoxicated to give consent.

Evans’ bond was originally set at a $40,000 bond, but during his initial court appearance prosecutors agreed to a reduce the bail to a $25,000 bond. As of Thursday afternoon, the Cache County Jail did not have a listed inmate under Evans’ date of birth.

Court documents indicate that Evans is on pretrial supervision with Professional Probation Services, Inc. The probation includes no alcohol or illegal drugs, no contact with the alleged victim and he must report to PPSI immediately upon release from custody.

Evans’ next court appearance, for the two felony charges, is scheduled July 10 before Judge Brian Cannell. Evans noted he does not have money to hire his own attorney and will be appointed a public defender, according to court records.

Evans signed with Utah State’s football team Feb. 1, 2017.

laurenmarie.bennett@aggiemail.usu.edu

@laurmarben