| For Immediate Release Case # 04ZF0051
May 28, 2008 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Public Affairs Counsel Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami |
MAN FACES TRIAL FOR MURDERING WOMAN
IN TRAILER NEAR CHURCH BY STABBING
HER AFTER SEXUAL ASSAULT
SANTA ANA – A man faces trial tomorrow for sexually assaulting, stabbing and murdering a woman in a trailer across from a church after meeting her when she got off a train in Fullerton. Steve Carl Evans, 60, Fullerton, is charged with special circumstances murder during the commission of attempted rape and the commission of sexual penetration with a foreign object by force, attempted forcible rape, and sexual penetration by foreign object by force. He faces a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon. Evans is a second striker with a prior 1983 conviction for forcible rape. The District Attorney is seeking the death penalty in this case. Opening statements are expected to begin tomorrow afternoon, May 29, 2008, in Department C-42, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana.
At approximately 1:00 a.m. on August 19, 2003, Evans is accused of meeting Jeannette Elias, 24, after she got off a train in Fullerton. The defendant did not know the victim. He is accused of taking Elias to a travel-trailer where he had been living in Fullerton, which was parked on a lot adjacent to a church. Evans is accused of sexually assaulting the victim and attempting to rape her. He is accused of murdering the victim by stabbing her over 22 times with several different knifes, including a meat cleaver and a butcher knife. Evans is accused of leaving the victim’s body in his trailer and fleeing to his parents’ La Mirada home.
Officers contacted the defendant the day of the murder at his parents’ home. Officers discovered the victim’s body, fully clothed, in Evans’ trailer.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Mike Murray of the Homicide Unit is prosecuting this case.
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