Waynesville man sentenced to life after pleading guilty to murder of 9-month-old girl

Ryan Oehrli, Asheville Citizen Times
·2 min read
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WAYNESVILLE - A man charged with murdering nine-month-old Chloe Evans in 2019 has pleaded guilty, according to the Haywood County District Attorney's Office.

Dylan Brian Green, 25, of Waynesville will spend the rest of his life in prison, District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch said in a news release. Had Green gone to trial and been found guilty, he could have faced the death penalty.

With school records on file that indicated Green’s IQ score was in the 60 to 70 range, jurors, if the case had reached the death penalty phase, would have faced questions about his intellectual capacity, according to the release.

Waynesville resident Dylan Brian Green, center, pleaded guilty in Haywood County Superior Court to first-degree murder for the July 18, 2019, death of nine-month-old Chloe Evans.
Waynesville resident Dylan Brian Green, center, pleaded guilty in Haywood County Superior Court to first-degree murder for the July 18, 2019, death of nine-month-old Chloe Evans.

A 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibits the death penalty for intellectually disabled defendants.

“It was a difficult decision to accept a plea,” Welch said in the news release. “This was an innocent child at the beginning of her life viciously and senselessly killed.”

Chloe Green's grandmother, the primary family member involved in the case, requested Green receive life in prison, the release says.

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The Citizen Times reported in August 2019 that Green, the boyfriend of the child's mother at the time, was with the baby in a residence on Lookout Lane in the Jonathan Creek community on the day of her death, according to the Haywood County Sheriff's Office. A month earlier, before the Sheriff's Office had identified a suspect to media, a spokesperson said the baby was found with "multiple bruises." 

He was the only person in the home with Chloe Green at the time, according to the DA's office.

“We think it’s a just resolution,” Chief Assistant District Attorney Jeff Jones, who co-prosecuted the case with Kate Robinette, said of the plea in the release.

Ryan Oehrli is the breaking news and social justice reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times. Send tips to coehrli@citizentimes.com. 

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Waynesville man to serve life sentence for death of 9-month-old