ADA, Okla. — The plot to kill David Charles Evans was hatched while the Oklahoma pastor was on a mission trip to Mexico earlier this month, according to police.
Evans, the beloved 50-year-old pastor of Harmony Free Will Baptist Church in Ada, was working near the U.S. border, helping those in need.
“Doing our best to be the hands and feet of Jesus and showing God’s love to others,” Evans wrote March 18 on Facebook. “Helping migrant people as they are dropped off right across the border by Border Patrol.
“So often when we are not sure what to do, we just need to do something.”
Four days later, on March 22, Evans was dead.
The pastor was found shot in the head, bleeding from his nose and mouth, early that morning inside the Ada home he shared with his wife, Kristie Dawnell Evans.
Kristie Evans, 47, told 911 dispatchers and responding officers that she awoke to a “loud pop” and found her husband lying next to her with a bullet wound to the head.
“He’s laying here in a pool of blood,” a sobbing Kristie Evans told a dispatcher. “Oh my God!”
“It’s OK, babe. It’s OK,” the female dispatcher responded.
First responders pronounced David Evans dead at the scene, according to Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation officials.
Kristie Evans told investigators that an intruder had come in and shot her husband. That, authorities now say, was a lie.
The alleged truth would be something much worse than what the widow initially told police.
OSBI investigators on Thursday arrested Kristie Evans and charged her with first-degree murder in her husband’s death. Also in custody is Kahlil Deamie Square, a 26-year-old man described in court records as Kristie Evans’ lover.
He is also described as David Evans’ lover.
Kristie Evans reportedly confessed her involvement to state investigators Thursday in an interview at the Ada Police Department. According to an arrest affidavit obtained by multiple media organizations, including The Daily Beast and The Washington Post, Evans’ grown daughter texted detectives that day to say her mother was coming in to make a statement.
Evans had told her daughter she “begged Kahlil to kill David, and that Kahlil shot and killed David with David’s gun,” the court document states.
In her subsequent statement, Evans told authorities her husband “was verbally abusive and controlling of her” and “called her names like ‘slut, fat, ugly and whore.’”
A chance encounter and a deadly plan
The affidavit alleges that the couple first met Square at a Super 8 Motel a few months ago. The three later met at the motel on several occasions for sexual trysts.
During one encounter in which David Evans also participated, “Kristie secretly dropped her phone number on the floor for Kahlil,” the affidavit states.
She began communicating daily with Square, one-on-one without her husband’s knowledge. They embarked on a sexual relationship that did not include David Evans.
Kristie Evans told detectives that when her husband traveled to Mexico earlier this month on his mission trip, Square stayed with her at their home. During Square’s three-day stay, she told him David Evans was abusive.
“Kristie told Kahlil it would be nice to have more freedom,” the affidavit said, according to the Post. “Kristie told Kahlil stories about how David mistreated her.
“Kahlil simply responded, ‘Damn.’”
David Evans posted frequent photos from his mission trip on his Facebook page. The avid Star Wars fan — who named one of his sons Anakin — took a selfie with a “new friend” at an orphanage to show off the young boy’s Star Wars T-shirt.
In another photo, posted four days before his slaying, David Evans posed on a street as he enjoyed the sights of the country.
“That’s one great-looking man I have right there,” Kristie Evans commented on the image.
“Hey, thanks!” David Evans responded, adding an emoji with hearts for the eyes.
In her own March 18 Facebook post, Kristie Evans called her husband her best friend.
“Every day with you is special,” the post read.
Meanwhile, Kristie Evans and Square were planning how to kill David Evans when he returned from his trip, authorities said.
Those plans involved David Evans’ own handgun, according to the affidavit.
“Kristie gave David’s gun and a box of bullets to Kahlil,” the document states. “Kristie and Kahlil agreed upon an approximate time Kahlil would come to the Evans’ residence to kill David. Kristie left the backdoor unlocked so Kahlil could make entry to the residence.”
Square arrived sometime around 1 a.m., Kristie Evans told police. When she heard him arrive, she went into the living room to find him “crouched down” in there.
“Kahlil told Kristie he was concerned he was making too much noise,” the affidavit said. “Kristie urged him to proceed with the plan.”
She turned her back while Square snuck into the bedroom and remained in the living room as he fired the fatal shot, authorities said.
Evans said after Square fled out the back door, she went into the bedroom and saw her husband lying in bed, making “a gurgling sound,” the Post reported. She sat on her side of the bed and called 911, she said.
Authorities said in the affidavit that Kristie Evans’ story had begun to unravel even before her admissions to police. A neighbor interviewed by detectives told them about a white Ford Mustang that had been parked outside the couple’s house several days before the killing, while David Evans was in Mexico.
That same neighbor provided home security camera footage that showed the same white Mustang, later determined to be Square’s, at the Evans house on March 22 as the pastor was being slain.
In a sermon he delivered hours before he was killed, David Evans talked about the ways the devil tries to “seek and destroy” those who witness God’s power. If the devil is not attacking you, he said, it means you aren’t doing enough to make others believe in Jesus.
“What a challenge to us, because who’s coming to Christ because of us?” Evans said in the sermon posted on his church’s Facebook page, which has been deactivated since the pastor’s murder. “Who’s believing in Jesus because of us? And if we’re doing anything in that direction, expect for the enemy to come to destroy you. So don’t be shocked and start whining and crying. Expect it. Be prepared for it.
“If the devil is not attacking you, there is a reason. If the devil is attacking you, there is a reason.”
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Evans’ faith and the activities of his church made up a significant portion of the posts on his own Facebook page. His family also featured heavily in his other posts.
In a post written March 15, days before his wife allegedly orchestrated his death, he wrote that they were taking a “date night” to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his marriage proposal.
The pastor wrote that they’d seen many ups and downs in the decades since, but that God had seen them through.
“As life moves on, I hope you know that first, I love God. I’m nothing without Him. And second, because of His love, I love you so much,” David Evans wrote. “Thank you for the years, the smiles and the tears. Thank you for our kids and grandkids. Thank you for being you. You make me a better person. You are my partner in life and ministry, and I couldn’t do it without you.
“So tonight, as we run errands and ‘date,’ know I love you, and if you’d have me, I’d do it all again.”
The Post reported that Harmony Free Will Baptist Church issued a statement regarding the pastor’s death.
“Harmony Free Will Baptist Church has been grieving the death of our pastor, David Evans, over the last few days,” the statement read. “The circumstances that are now coming to light have taken us by surprise and we are greatly saddened.”
“We are aware that even pastors can succumb to human frailty.”
Cox Media Group
