Former North Texas assistant high school principal pleads guilty to fatal hit-and-run
A former North Texas high school assistant principal was sentenced to prison after he pleaded guilty to intoxication manslaughter in a hit-and-run accident, the Parker County District Attorney’s Office announced in a news release.
Kevin Scott Evans, 41, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in district court in Weatherford on Monday.
On the evening of Jan. 8, 2020, a 911 caller reported that a pickup truck had hit a man, Ernest Medley, 51, as he was walking on the shoulder of Teas Highway 199 in Reno. The caller described the truck and said it continued westbound.
A Springtown Police Department officer later found what he believed to be the same pickup and pulled it over. When he approached the pickup, driven by Evans, the officer saw that its right headlight was broken, there was hair and blood on the right fender, and the airbag was deployed, according to the Parker County District Attorney’s Office.
Evans admitted that he had been drinking at On The Patio, an Azle bar, after work that day. He said he had five to six beers after leaving work at around 4 p.m.
He was an assistant principal at Boyd High School in Wise County.
Evans failed field sobriety tests administered by officers. He was arrested on a charge of intoxication manslaughter.
Reno Police Department officers obtained a search warrant from District Judge Craig Towson and took a sample of Evans’ blood. Testing by the Texas Department of Public Safety crime lab showed that his blood alcohol concentration was 0.134, almost double the Texas legal limit of 0.08.
Tissue samples taken from Evans’ vehicle were also tested by the DPS crime lab and showed the DNA matched Medley’s.
“Mr. Evans had no criminal record and was, by all accounts, a model citizen prior to this tragedy,” Parker County District Attorney Jeff Swain said in the release. “But the decisions he made that night cost a man his life and his family the chance to have him in their lives. Our choices have consequences. In our view, that meant that he needed to go to prison.”
After the accident, an investigation by the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission showed that Evans drank eight pint-sized Miller Lite beers at the bar that evening.
“Part of the plea agreement was that a deadly weapon finding would be entered,” Swain said. “The importance of that finding is that Mr. Evans will have to serve at least half of his sentence before he can be considered for parole. Ordinarily, parole law would allow him to be parole eligible when his actual time served plus his good time credit equals a fourth of his sentence, which could be as little as a year or two.”
Several of Medley’s family and friends attended Evans’ sentencing hearing, some of whom gave victim impact statements.
Della Mitchusson, Medley’s sister, said that her brother “had a very loving, kind spirit. He didn’t have much, but what he had, he would give to others in need.” She said that Medley was survived by two young sons who will have to grow up without a father.
Christian Donnelly, a witness who was walking next to Medley when he was hit by Evans’ vehicle, asked Assistant District Attorney Al Charanza to read his statement. “Since that day, I have been depressed, suffered PTSD, and have nightmares. I am doing counseling, but the depression, PTSD, and nightmares continue. I have a lot of anger over what you did.”
“I would love for you to feel the pain that we have felt because of your reckless behavior,” said Eugeania Hutcherson, Medley’s sister, in a written statement that Charanza read. “I don’t understand why you didn’t get a Lift or Uber instead of making the stupid decision to get behind the wheel of the car.”
The sentencing occurred in the 415th District Court with Judge Graham Quisenberry presiding.
